Insomnia
by TheRedRidingHood
Summary: Danny isn't sleeping, he hasnt been for weeks. One night he spots two kindred spirits on the street but the next day, one of them is his latest case, the newest victim of a sadistic serial killer praying on insomniacs.8th Chapter posted, please Review.xx
1. Sleepless

Since we all know i love to torture Danny, this is yet another fanfic where Danny has, just, the worst possible time.

A little info for you, the title and indeed the Insomnia Danny suffers are based on my own life, as are some of his fears about taking a sleeping pills, his reluctance to do so.

The plot is; The events of season 2, Louie, Aiden, Flack, all that bad stuff, has been getting to Danny, worsening the insomnia he has been living with most of his life. Danny is emotionally and physically exhausted but is unable to sleep, so spends his nights either working around his apartment, or more often, staring out of his window at the sleeping world he can never join.. One night he see's a pair of girls on the street, one of whom is his newest case. Danny finds himself struggling to seperate his personal and work life as he is pulled into the world of insomniacs and the mysterious Dr Constantine Guide.

Ratings for content, eventually its going to be for language and violence and stuff. I dont onw any CSI characters, just my own OC's of whom there will be a couple, mainly a stand in detective for Flack as this is set after the season finale, more or less now. Erm, there are one or two character things, some about Mac taking sleeping pills that are purely out of my head and are there for the story, they're not errors or anything.I'm flirting with making this into a series after this main story so feedback...

**Please Read and Review.**

Dedicated to The Sleepless.

* * *

Danny Messer was sitting on the small window seat in his bedroom, leaning back against the wall, his legs crossed in front of him.

His bedroom behind him was dark, but in the amber coloured light, it was possible to see the tangled sheets covering the mattress, evidence of a restless night. It had been so, and it was not the first. Danny hadn't gotten more than couple of hours of sleep a night for almost 3 weeks. He closed his eyes, laying his head back against the wall, sitting still in place, hoping the tugging sensation of sleep would begin to pull at him, drawing him into a doze.

There was nothing, just the sensation that he was sitting with his eyes closed, which with his window open, him so obviously exposed, made him nervous.

He opened his eyes again, staring out at the street.

At this time of the morning it was understandably empty. Every now and then, a late night/early morning dog walker would pass by, still dressed in pyjamas or sweats or some other such outfit that signified they had been roused from the sleep which was lost to Danny. There had been a few groups or couples or single people who had seemed to be returning from nights out, no surprise given it was Friday night. Or Saturday morning really. There had been a crack of thunder earlier and it had begun to rain almost torrentially, but the air was still humid and warm and Danny was watching the world through the near solid wall of rain that was soaking the city.

Even over the rain Danny would periodically hear the distant shriek of police, ambulance or fire truck sirens, and every time he did Danny would turn to stare at the pager laying on his bedside table, simultaneously willing it to beep to life, giving him an excuse not to be asleep as he was called back to work, and dreading the things screen lighting up with the message to call in, dreading the possibility of having to be called to a scene, to the sight of a dead body, a prematurely shortened life, another example of the awful things human beings seemed to almost relish doing to one another. He loved his job, loved putting the criminals in prison, but part of Danny withered a little each time he saw another innocent life stolen away.

He glanced at his useless bed briefly. Danny had been an insomniac since he was younger, but he had been able to work around it, had gotten used to living on only three or four hours of sleep a night. But lately, it had been different. The sleep he did get was too light to do him any real good, and he was scared to take sleeping pills, always had been, in case he made a mistake and took too many, or missed a page or his alarm because he was drugged.

Nix, the slender black cat he had brought home almost 3 year ago was laying in his lap, her paws resting on his knee, her head atop her paws. He was idly scratching the top of her head between her ears, listening as she purred rhythmically, her tail curling over his arm.

There was a tiny tabby kitten crawling up Danny's worn old t-shirt, using the ragged material to pull itself up.

"Sox that hurts" Danny muttered, picking up the kitten with his free hand and pulling it away from his chest.

He had found the kitten on the subway of all places, and had taken it to a vet, bringing it home almost two weeks ago.

Nix had greeted the new arrival with a blank, cat look that Danny had decided was unimpressed but in the weeks since, had taken shine to having Sox around.

Danny sighed and glanced at the clock on his bedside. It was 3:14 AM, and counting the previous nights lack of sleep, Danny was nearing four days on something like two and a half hours of sleep.

He licked his bottom lip, wondering what else he could do. His apartment was cleaner than it had ever been, every surface polished and cleaned, every drawer neatly and formally organised. Unable to sleep, Danny had come up with a new lay out for his closet that kept his casual and formal clothes separate, he had finally dug out four years worth of accumulated bric-a-brac from under his bed, realising with a delighted smile that the old t-shirt he had been given by his brother when Louie moved out, a t-shirt Danny had thought lost, was stuffed behind an old box full of even older photo's.

Danny wore the t-shirt now as he sat in the window.

He had washed the shirt hundreds of times since Louie had given it to him, but some how, despite that, it still retained the familiar smell Danny associated with his big brother; cigarettes and bubble gum and aftershave.

Louie had considered the shirt his luckiest item of clothing, his most treasured possession, for what reasons, Danny had never known, never felt right asking.

When Louie had left home, he and Danny hadn't been on good terms. They hadn't since that night at the Giants Stadium when Louie had seemed to out and out reject his brother after Danny made it clear he wasn't comfortable taking part in the beating of Bobby Manning, a young man Sonny Sassone, leader of the Tangleoods, had brought to the stadium, had murdered at the stadium.

From that day, Danny had never felt the same way about Louie, and since Louie had been distant since that night, the brothers had never had a chance to resolve the issue. The day Louie moved out Danny had stood watching Louie pack, chewing his nail. Louie had been taking some clothes, throwing older items aside to be packed into a box and put in storage. When he had come to the old, dark green t-shirt, the lettering Danny had never quite been able to read faded almost completely, Louie had nodded to his little brother, tossing him the shirt.

'_You want that? I don't hardly wear it any way but its still got some wear left in it, no point putting it away'_

Louie had turned his back on Danny who stood holding the t-shirt, making out like it wasn't a big deal. Danny had nodded, tossing the shirt over his shoulder and quietly thanked his brother, watching as he went through his other belongings, setting some aside, keeping others.

When he was done, Louie had walked past Danny, hugging him quickly, both of them a little uncomfortable with it.

He had told him to stay out of trouble, then after saying good bye to their parents, he had left. Danny had seen him again, plenty of times, but that rift had always, always been there, that tension whenever they met, that awareness, or so Danny had thought, that Louie was disappointed in his little brother, that Danny had in some way failed.

It had taken Danny being accused with murder, his reputation and potentially, though no one had ever really mentioned it, his life, at risk, to heal the rift.

Danny had discovered that the night at Giants stadium had been intentional on Louie's part. Louie had know that Sonny's methods of beating on unarmed men, his darker criminal activities, never sat right with Danny. The night at the stadium had been a test, to see if Danny would reject the Tanglewood way of life or embrace it. Louie had intentionally pushed Danny away after that night, to keep him safe.

Danny had discovered this at the cost, potentially, of Louie's life. To get a confession out of Sonny, to save Danny, Louie had gone to Sonny, talked him into confessing on a hidden tape but Sonny and his boys had worked Louie over, beating him so badly they had put him in a coma. That had been over a month ago and Louie was still hospitalised, still comatose. His condition had remained unchanged since the beating, he was still hooked up to more machines than Danny like to think about.

Louie's state was not the only blow Danny had taken in recent months, he thought as he watched a yellow cab crawl slowly along the street, it's driver glancing up at Danny's third floor window, spotting Danny, nodding in greeting.

Danny nodded back. As the cab crawled out of sight, Danny thought about Aidan Burn, his friend Aidan. The words Aidan and Dead still didn't fit together in Danny's mind, even thinking them was uncomfortable. She had been murdered. She may have been raped before she died. Knowing that, Danny wanted to kill some one. He wanted to kill DJ Pratt, her killer. He wanted to beat Pratt to death, slowly, with a good old Louisville slugger.

He had a picture of Aidan, one her father had given him after the funeral, when he had been helping him pack up Aidan's belongings.

The photo had stood on a shelf near Aidan's front door. It showed her wearing jeans, a tight white wife beater, leaning against the guardrail near the docks, the river, her hair dark hair tousled by some breeze. She was looking off to the side, as if something had caught her attention while she posed for the picture. Which it had.

Danny had taken the photo of Aidan after they had spent a day together. They had simultaneously had a day off from work, both having resolved to use the time to do all the little errands and tasks that everyone had to do that built up over time. They had both finished much earlier than expected and Aidan had called Danny a split second before he could call her, professing her boredom, explaining about her sudden abundance of completely empty hours. They had met up for a late breakfast, giggling over the menu's, ordering massive platters of pancakes each.

They had no plan of how to kill the day, so had simply spent it wandering around the city, doing what ever they felt like doing, when ever they felt like doing it.

For any life long city dweller, their home city is treasure trove of markets, stores, activities, ways to fill and kill time, to live life in your city, your home. Danny and Aidan where born and bred New Yorkers and they had found ways to entertain themselves.

They had stumbled on a flea market near the Park, a small short term carnival setting up within the Park itself. Their lunch had been hotdogs, eaten while having a staring contest, which Aidan won by telling Danny to take off his glasses at it gave him an advantage. She had been right, of course. They had asked each other to show one another something they could do, some talent they had that no one knew about. Danny had found a trampoline set up in the Park and showed Aidan his gymnastic abilities, back flipping on the springy mesh with ease.

Aidan had tried to top him by walking on her hands but Danny could match that, so she had found a group of busking musicians and taught Danny how to tango, something she excelled at.

Danny had bought Aidan a classic style old rag doll from the flea market, she had found him, knowing he was interested in music, a manuscript book, for his own compositions. It had been a fantastic day, never going beyond a couple of friends spending time together. They had ended up simply wandering around, finding them selves at the docks just as the sun was beginning to set. Danny, who always carried some kind of camera with him, had told Aidan to pose, laughing as she threw herself into it, pouting sexily at the camera, giving the lens a look Danny would have thought could have melted the glass.

As Danny was pressing the button, a guy had yelled and Aidan had instinctively glanced over. Danny had more pictures from that day but he had given that one to Aidan.

'_You don't want it?' she had asked him as he looked through the other photos._

'_Well you say that you aint photogenic but that picture disproves that, so you have to keep it as evidence you take damn good pictures' Danny had stated._

'_But you love pictures like this, random lookin ones' Aidan had frowned, pointing at some of the other pictures he had taken, many of which where candid shots of Aidan, people, a few oddly angled ones he had clearly taken of himself and her._

_He had shrugged 'Besides, its so New York' he had smiled._

'_How do you mean?' Aidan had smirked._

'_You, the way you look anyway, sorta exotic, but with that…that attitude, that tough, on alert attitude…then you got how you're standing, all sexy like, you got the back ground, where you are…it all, I don't know, it sorta seems like everything New York is about' Danny had shrugged again 'Look you gotta have it, it's yours' he had made a cutting gesture with his hands 'end of' _

She had taken it, kept it. He looked at it when ever he went over to her apartment, smiling at the memories of the day. The photo had taken on new significance for him now that Aidan was dead. It didn't just remind of the great day he had had with her, for him it symbolised Aidan's whole personality, her character. As well as how she looked in it, there was also the fact that she had looked away at the sound of the man's shout, her sexy pout switching immediately to the suspicious half frown at the possibility that something was wrong. That was Aidan all over, always ready, always wanting to help, to get the bad guy.

Danny blinked slowly, drawing himself back to the present day. He had other pictures of him and Aidan together, with the other CSI's , their other friends. He had two favourites of just him and Aidan.

The first he had taken after he and Aidan had worked an eighteen hour shift on an arson case. They where riding the subway together, Danny having lost a bet as to how the killer would react when they arrested him and so having to buy dinner for Aidan and Don Flack. Flack had gone ahead to get a table in the Italian restaurant they had chosen and Aidan and Danny where on their way to meet him. They both had spotted a pair of sullen faced teens, a boy and a girl, holding hands and looking miserable about it. Danny had taken his digital camera from his bag and held it up, nudging Aidan and nodding toward the teens, silently communicating that they should mimic them.

They had both pulled over dramatically sombre faces but cracked at the last minute, Aidan instead winking at the camera while Danny pulled a shocked face. The picture, in black and white, stood in a frame on the shelves over Danny's computer.

The other was taken after a similar situation. Another long haul case, this one involving a battered to death teen, had ended with the two of them, Flack, Stella Bonasera and Mac Taylor in Mcginty's the pub down the road from the lab.

Danny and Aidan, exhausted, had piled into a booth with the others, sipping beers, laughing and joking. At some point, the weary pair had simply dozed off. Danny had thrown his arm across the top of the booth at some point and when he fell asleep, his arm dropped casually to Aidan's shoulder. She in turn had leaned against his shoulder and chest, while he had lowered his head to rest atop hers. There was, again, nothing more in it that the closeness of true friends. Some one had taken the picture and emailed it to Danny and Aidan both days later. He knew she'd had a copy in her apartment, which her father had given to Stella.

Danny thumped his head against the wall again, his eyes feeling hot and prickly as he remembered. A million and one images flashed through his head, of Aidan, smiling that cocky smile, asking him if he was okay. His friend.

His other friend, Don Flack, lay even now in a hospital bed. A bomber, a schizophrenic with a Marine's fetish had put him there. Flack had been in the bombed building, had needed massive surgery to remove bomb degree from his chest. It had been touch and go for a while, still could be even though Flack seemed be growing stronger every day. They had come too close to losing him, too soon after losing Aidan.

Danny chewed his lip again and thought about Flack, about how the detective was one of few people Danny could truly call a friend. Flack had always been there for Danny, been around to make sure Danny was okay if the situation got tough. When Danny had been suspected of shooting and killing a fellow officer two years past, Flack was the only one Danny had felt had had Danny's back, other than Aidan.

Flack, Danny felt some times, was like a surrogate brother, he was always there to look out for Danny, sometimes in ways Louie had never been, always ready to fight for Danny, the way Danny was with him, with any of his friends.

Danny considered Aidan and Flack to be his two closest friends. Now one of them was dead, the other was fighting to keep from joining her in the ground. Danny's brother was comatose…Danny began to suspect why he wasn't sleeping.

His right arm twinged as it did sometimes, an echo of the old injury that had ended a potential baseball career. That had been another occasion when Danny had seen Louie in the wrong light.

Danny had been near inconsolable after the announcement that his arm such as it was, would keep him from being a pro. Louie had taken Danny out for a few beers, told him shit happens, then changed the subject. Danny loved his brother but that had hurt him, cut him deep.

He rolled his head to the side, feeling the wall behind him. With a long, weary sigh, Danny gazed down at the street.

A young woman rounded the corner across the street, walking slowly, swinging her arms in that distracted way some people had.

She wore a tight black t-shirt with a hood, which she had pulled up over her black hair, and long sleeves which half covered her hands, the hood and sleeves making her pale skin seeming preternaturally bright in the darkness. Her pants where dark and loose, hanging off her narrow hips, and her baseball shoes scuffed the floor as she walked along.

She looked, from what Danny could see of her, bored. She had no protection from the rain, other than the thin hood, but she didn't seem that bothered.

A young woman followed the first girl, carrying an umbrella which obscured most of her face. This girl wore a sleeveless t-shirt and a long skirt with sandals. The skirt was black, and she wore a lot of silver jewellery.

The first girl was smaller than her companion, both in height and weight. Not umbrella girl, as Danny labelled her was particularly heavy, she just had a little more height, a few more curves than her pixieish companion.

The smaller girl glanced up and saw Danny in his window and even though she was across the street, he saw something in her face, her dark eyes that told him she was in the same boat as him, an insomniac and a night person. He was close enough to see the small smile she gave him, a nod which seemed almost fraternal, like some sort of acknowledgment that they both where the same.

Danny returned her nod and watched her and her friend.

The umbrella girl was talking rapidly, Danny could just make out the sound of her voice over the rain, sounding to Danny like she was either high or incredibly happy about something.

The smaller girl seemed content to let her friend ramble, nodding slightly as the other girl burbled on. On the taller girls bare arms, Danny could see the dark lines of several, intricate looking tattoo's, and he imagined she would have a lot of pierrcings too.

Danny picked up the camera that lay beside him and snapped off a few shots of the pair as they walked along the street, focusing on a tattoo on the taller girls back, visible under her top; it showed a Grim Reaper like figure, cowled, clutching a scythe in one skeletal hand. Danny zoomed on the tattoo and got a few shots, then pulled back and watched the girls who wandered along the side walk before finally disappearing around the corner.

Danny sighed again. They had been interesting, something to distract him from his current situation. And now they where gone.

Danny lay his head back, feeling the weight of Sox on his stomach as the kitten fell asleep. He sat at the window until the sky began to lighten and the world beyond Danny's window began to stir and waken and the unceasing rain promised it would be a difficult day for all. Danny's alarm clock began to chirp, startling the cats.

Danny waited while Nix uncurled herself from his lap and trotted out of his room, followed shortly by Sox.

Danny stretched his legs, rising from his seat and standing staring around the bedroom. Wordlessly he shut off his alarm, made his bed, and headed for the shower, preparing himself for yet another day of the worst horrors humanity had to offer.

* * *

She lay on her side, almost looking as if she where sleeping, if not for the waxy pallor of her skin, the sense to her that something was missing, some essential thing, some spark of life. 

Her hair, dyed a shade of dark blue was fanned out around her head almost as if some one had arranged it that way and her face was creased into a gentle frown. There was a bruise over her nose and mouth where the killer had smothered her, and a long cut across her throat, not deep enough to be fatal, not by a long shot but enough to bleed.

She had a silver ring in her nose, a stud over her lip and two loops in her eye brow.

The rain drummed rhythmically on the ceiling panes of the green house and the whole building was too warm.

Danny focused the camera on a bruise on the girls forearm, faint but still significant, showing she may have fought her killer.

He panned down her body, taking in the darkly coloured tattoo's that decorated her skin. She wore several silver necklaces, rings, bracelets, and Danny photographed them too, making sure to show how on her right wrist, some of the bracelets seemed to be covering cuts across the skin, faint thin lines, like the one at her throat, not deep enough to be fatal but to bleed.

Her skirt had ridden up or been pushed up, it was hard to tell as it lay in such a way that it could have been arranged, like Danny suspected her hair was, or it simply could have happened in the struggle, assuming that this was where she had died.Her legs where curled slightly as if she where simply laying in bed asleep, the paly skin covered with torn fishnets, and more tattoos.

Danny stood over her to focus the camera on a mark on her neck, just behind her ear, almost hidden by her hair.

It was a small, ragged cut, similar to something you would get catching yourself on a nail or jagged shard of glass or metal. Danny zoomed the lens in tight to show the small but visible flakes of rust inside the wound.

He took a step backward to photograph her from behind, and froze.

"Danny?" Mac Taylor, Danny's superior was crouching near the girls feet, taking a swabbing of the dirt on her sandals "What's wrong?" the older man asked in that deceptively calm, soft voice of his.

The girl had another tattoo, on her back, an image of a Grim Reaper, cowl and scythe and all. Danny looked down at her legs and saw that they where long, that she had curves, not heavy, just defined. She would have been tall standing up, carrying that umbrella alongside her impish companion.

"Danny?" Mac repeated, concern in his voice.

He was worried, very worried, about the younger CSI, who he knew had taken the previous months various blows very badly.

He wasn't sure entirely how Danny was dealing with all the emotions Mac knew he must be feeling, but he suspected he actually wasn't, choosing to ignore them instead.

Danny wasn't sleeping well, Mac could say that much at least, he could tell just by looking. Danny's already fair complexion was almost pearlescent, his blue eyes ringed with dark, deep purplish bags. Mac himself knew from not sleeping, but he was trained as a Marine, he could go longer than most on little sleep, he had been trained to reserve his energy. Besides, while he didn't realise it, he had one up on Danny as he was willing, if he got desperate to resort herbal remedies, teas or in a pinch, half of a sleeping pill, to push himself into a sleep.

Danny had been quiet of late, barely even qualifying as monosyllabic, speaking only when absolutely necessary. It was obvious his mind was more or less constantly on other things, not that his work had suffered at all, but Mac wasn't sure of what he could do or say to help his young friend.

"I saw her" Danny said quietly "Last night-this morning I guess, some time around 3am"

"What? Where?" Mac frowned.

"She was walking along my street with a friend, I didn't see exactly where they came from, or exactly where they went…didn't see anyone following em either" Danny stated.

"What where you doing staring out your window at that hour?" Mac asked pointedly.

"Couldn't sleep" Danny shrugged as if it wasn't important.

"Are you sure it's the same girl?" Mac gritted his teeth but this wasn't the right time to get into a discussion about Danny's lack of sleep.

"Yeah, I took photo's of em as they passed me and I focused on that tattoo for a few of em" Danny nodded to the girls pale back.

"Any idea who she is?" Mac asked.

"Not a one. Just some kid who couldn't sleep I guess, ran into the wrong person" Danny looked over at Mac, meeting his eyes for the first time that day.

Mac saw some thing in Danny's, a weariness that seemed to go beyond the physical. It was more than just a cops cynicism too, it was something deeper and it scared Mac. Danny was too young to be so tired of the bad things in the world, to be so resigned to it. He prayed it was only temporary, like a bad mood brought on by a consistently bad day. He hoped that once Louie and Flack began to recover, if Louie was going go recover at all, once things started to get back to normal, that weariness would fade.

"The MO is familiar" Mac stated as Danny looked away again, seeming oddly unwilling to maintain eye contact for too long, Mac suspected because he knew how well Mac would read him.

"The Vampire girl ten weeks ago, made the head lines cos her dad was some big Wall Street heavyweight…and of I remember correctly eight weeks before her, the Goth Drag Queen" Danny correctly noted.

"There are others" Mac nodded "Going back about 18 months, five or six in total, that I could find, same MO, mostly the same type of kid, Goths" Mac frowned deeply.

"Mostly?" Danny asked.

"There where a few who wheren't Goths, one was a choreographer specialising in hip hop, one was in a sorority that had a 'pink' rule, another guy was a dad who wouldn't even let his kids watch horror movies, but all of em died the same way" Mac had a policy of keeping the files for open and unsolved cases on his desk, working on them in his spare time, memorising details lest they crop up in a new case that could be related.

"Does this count as a serial?" Danny asked curiously, some tiny semblance of his old self seeming to emerge as he became intrigued by the possibility of a serial killer.

"Could be, I mean the time patterns are pretty much regular, the victims are mostly very similar, there's the ritual aspect with the slit throat…." Mac shrugged "Most serial killers escalate, more killings in a shorter space of time but even if that's not what this guy does, cant deny the 'serial killing' aspects we're seeing"

"You want to call the feds in?" Danny gave a dubious frown that made Mac smile internally as it was completely the Old Danny, not wanting to pass the case off to people he though unable to handle it.

"I think if they haven't come sniffing already it says they either haven't heard about it or don't think it's a serial" Mac shrugged "Either way, no reason we should do their job for em right?" he gave Danny a small smirk.

Danny returned it, fleetingly, but his face grew sombre as he turned back to look at the girl's body "Shit…her friend was a lot smaller than she was Mac, same age I think but smaller…this girls tall, she's strong lookin…if _she _couldn't fight off the killer there might be a second victim some where" he said.

"Well we'll just have to find this guy before it comes to that" Mac stated, trying to reassure Danny.

The younger man gave a slow nod, but went on staring at the body with those weary eyes.


	2. Chelsea didnt sleep

Chapter two, something to lead into the good stuff. Please review.xxxx

* * *

"Chelsea!" the young woman opened the door, her face a mask of hope and fear intertmingled, her eyes wide, shiny with unshed tears. 

She looked like the victim, but with a slight tan, and light brown hair. She still wore her pyjamas from the night before, a simple t-shirt and sweat pants ensemble, and had scraped her hair back into a ponytail that left her attractive face clear and open. She was tall and curvaceous like the vic, with that same, athleticism to her body, as if she worked out, looked after herself. She looked a little older than the victim, around 25.

She saw Danny, her eyes flicking from his eyes to the badge on his hip, back to his grim face. The minute spark of hope in her eyes dimmed and died and she took a step back away from the door, shaking her head slowly.

"Please…" she whispered as the tears began to fall from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. Her lower lip was quivering as she feebly motioned for Danny and his partner to come in.

Detective Nox Miles was taller than Danny, a little over 6 feet, lean but muscular. He had black hair, pale skin and black eyes and wore all black, at all times. Today's variation was jeans, boots and a long sleeves t-shirt under a black jacket. He had transferred from Boston two months before Flack had gotten hurt, wanting a change of scenery after a near fatal encounter with a suspect. He still carried a scar from that encounter, a long curling line of slightly whiter skin that started on his back, travelling up, over the collar of his shirt, looping around toward his throat before slashing back suddenly and disappearing under his hair.

No one in the NYPD was entirely sure what the story behind the scar was. He had been working with the CSI's, in Flacks place, for a little over a month.

He was a good cop, Danny had grudgingly admitted to himself, and he understood the CSI's history with Flack, how badly they had been affected by what had happened to him. He had even taken the time, Danny had been told, to visit Flack in hospital when Flack was awake, asking the other detective if he was okay with Nox taking his place until Flack could come back to work.

They walked into the small apartment, following the young woman to the tiny kitchen.

She sat down heavily at the table.

"Ma'am…you called to report your sister missing?" Nox sat opposite the young woman at the tiny table.

Nicole Harper nodded silently, like a child reluctant to talk to an adult.

"Could you tell us, is this woman your sister?" Nox took a Polaroid picture of the girl from the green house from his pocket, laying it on the table in front of Nicole.

She reached out, her hand shaking and picked up the photograph.

With a wrenching sob she lay the picture down, covering her mouth with one hand. Danny walked further into the kitchen and picked up one of a handful of glasses from the draining board, running her a glass of water.

He set it down beside and she grabbed it but didn't sip, simply holding it in her hand as if that was enough.

Nicole had called only a half hour before, giving a detailed description of her sister, explaining that she had gone out and never come home. The a case wouldn't not have been linked to Danny's case had Chelsea, the victim, not had the distinctive hair and tattoo's that she did.

Nox and Danny gave Nicole a few minutes to cry, standing quietly by as she touched the photo again, stroking the image of her sisters face.

"What happened to her?" She finally asked, whispering to keep her voice in control.

"That's what we're going to find out" Nox said "Can you tell us anything about her movements last night, where she might have been…we are aware she was out at around 3am…was that normal for her?" his accent came straight out of South Boston.

Nicole took a breath, and it was actually possible to read, in her face, the way she set her shoulders, that she knew she had to compose herself, understood that she had to be calm to help her sister.

"Um…she goes out all night…she doesn't sleep that well, since she was little, she would take sleeping pills when she wanted to get some real sleep" Nicole started to say.  
Out of the corner of his eye, Nox noticed that Danny had looked up when Nicole mentioned Chelsea's trouble sleeping.

Nicole had closed her eyes as she continued "She was used to getting by on not a lot of rest, she did most of her work at night, she was uh, a proof reader for some publishing company, a little one…she would usually be done by midnight though…uh…for about three or four months she had been going out…I didn't know where at first, she would go out when she was done with her work, stay out for hours…she was always, always back by 7am though"

"Why 7am?" Nox asked her.

"I get up for work at 7am…she always made sure to be back as I was getting up, so I would know she was okay" she said and had to fight not to break down again "Chelsea was into the Goth lifestyle, you know? With lots of black and all the pierrcings and tattoos" Nicole shook her head "I think she used to go clubs, Goth clubs but I don't know where…I'm sure she met people though, friends" She continued.

"How do you know?" Nox asked.

"Well for starters, she wasn't stupid enough to go out on her own" Nicole said pointedly "And sometimes she would seem to be planning on staying in and she would get an email and suddenly be going out…I never knew who she was meeting…we had different friends, she was nice to mine but didn't like them, they didn't like her and just ignored her…I stopped letting them come over if they wouldn't treat her right…I never even knew her friends when we where at school" she shook her head "Is that right? Is it okay that I was her sister and I loved her and we spent time together but…but we led totally separate lives outside?" she looked up at them both with tears in her eyes, seeming to be seeking some sort of comfort.

"Miss, I have a brother with a criminal record" Danny said quietly with a sad, sympathetic smile "There's nothing wrong with you and your sister being different" he assured her.

She nodded slowly "Last night" she said it firmly, as if forcing her self to get back on track "She left at about one, one thirty, os I guess it was this morning…I remember because I was half dozing watching a film and I heard the door close and checked the clock…there wasn't anything unusual about it" she shook her head.

Nox, noting everything the girl said in a note book he had taken from his pocket, underlined the last about 'nothing unusual' "Had there been any indication lately that something might be wrong? Did she seem concerned that she was being…followed or watched?" he asked

"She…she seemed sort of weirded out a few months back…I only remember because she seemed to be like, drunk, but she's not a drinker" she frowned slightly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear "She was worried but wouldn't say what about…then the last few months, she seemed to be sleeping a little better…I asked her what was behind it, if she was taking her sleeping pills but she said no, she said she'd found some sort of therapist but, wouldn't talk about him, just that she only met him at night, which…seemed odd to me…why meet an insomnia therapist in the early ours of the morning?" she looked up at them both, her blue eyes seeming almost too bright behind more unshed tears.

"Have there been any other incidents when Chelsea seemed drunk? If she's not a drinker it could indicate some one gave her something" Nox explained.

"There where a few times yeah…nothing as bad as that first time, and she didn't seem as freaked out but, she did seem a little out of it when she would come back in the mornings" Nicole sipped her water.

"Did she sleep those times?" Danny asked.

"How do you mean?" Nicole frowned.

"The times when Chelsea seemed…drunk…did she sleep that day or that night?" Danny had an edge in his voice, not cruel or aggressive, more like he had thought of something important.

"Yeah…the first time she slept all day, she went out at night but slept all day till nine pm…usually, if she does sleep she'll get a couple hours between when she comes in at seven and when she goes to work at one, but that day she came in, she had her…her bug out and I told her to lay down and she let me put her to bed and she just conked out…I called her work and told them she was sick, even got myself the day off to take care of her…I guess I figured she had been drinking, or had taken something…I woke her a couple times in the day, just to be sure I could, and she seemed fine, sleepy but fine, she woke up and could tell me her name, the president, where we were" she shrugged "like I said, I guessed she'd gotten drunk for the first time…that night she was totally fine, we had dinner, she went out at midnight…apart from the drunkenness and the sleep, it was typical Chelsea, she would go out if her legs where broken" she gave a sad smile and laugh that died even before they began.

"Did Chelsea have any boyfriends or girlfriends? Any one she might have been very close too?" Nox asked the question as blankly as he could, not wanting to send the message that Chelsea may have been raped.

Nicole shook her head, her eyes fixed on a spot on the floor "Like I said, I didn't know her friends" she said, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks again.

"Would it be okay if we uh…if we had a look around Chelsea's bedroom? To see of there's any clue about where she was going at night?"

"Of course…I need to call our parents" she whispered.

"Ma'am if you'd like we can make that call for you" Nox told her.

"No…I should do it, they need to hear it from me" Nicole shook her head but her eyes where grateful "Her room is at the end, on the left" She pointed down a short corridor leading off from the den area.

Danny and Nox walked down the corridor, entering Chelsea's bedroom. Some what unexpectedly, the walls where not black. Chelsea had painted her walls a deep red. There where dozens of posters, art works, mostly for bands, only half of which Danny could recognise, almost all heavy, heavy metal, the types of groups who dressed up as zombies on stage and where sometimes banned from performing in certain states. The posters where all framed in neat, black frames, and arranged aesthetically. She had black curtains, a black desk and chair, computer, bed sheets. But the red walls made the decoration seem more artistic. Her bed was pushed against the window, arranged so Chelsea could sit on it with her back to the walls as well, almost like having a couch in her room. Her shelves and small cupboard where neat, clean, but not quite as obsessively as Danny's.

"Some how I figured she'd be messier" Nox shrugged.

"When you don't sleep you find ways to spend your time…tidying your room is one way to do it…but you can tell she hasn't been in here as much, its tidy but it isn't like…insanely tidy" Danny had donned rubber gloves and pointed out the small pile of laundry in a basket beside the door, the pile of papers on the end of her desk, clearly having been simply set down rather than arranged.

Nox gave Danny a look, but didn't say anything.

Danny walked further into the room. "Where you gonna start?" Nox asked, his accent turning 'start' into 'staht'.

"The bed, to check if she _did_ have any one close" Danny said, not wasting any words.

Nox slipped on his own pair of gloves and moved to the desk as Danny carefully went over the top of Chelsea's bed with a UV light, before moving the sheets back to check beneath. He didn't find anything, so moved over to her desk, helping Nox go through the papers there.

"Looks like stuff from her publishers" Nox indicated several sheets that where obviously part of a bigger story "Some notes she's made on the stuff she reads…nothing significant really" she shrugged.

"She got emails right?" Danny asked.

Nox nodded and turned on the computer, waiting while it loaded up. When it had, they connected to the internet. "She's got her messenger account set to automatically log her in, so no password" Nox gave a nod "Lucky for us"

He looked at Danny, expecting an answer of some kind but Danny just tapped the keys, accessing Chelsea's email in box and reading the screen.

"Got emails from some one called LibNoc" he clicked on the most recent one "Looks like she was on a mailing list with a bunch of people, who…she met up with last night '_Two am, the den near GC, Guide will be there'_" he read aloud quietly.

"Hm" Nox frowned "GC…Grand Central" he stated.

"I was about to suggest that…there's a few all night bars near Grand Central this could mean…or diners…we need more information I think" he scrolled through more of the emails, noting down the other email addresses in the group.

Nox put in a call to the lab, explaining that a computer tech would need to head to the apartment and gather up Chelsea's computer for a complete analysis of her files to see if there was anything else on there, while Danny, Mac and himself worked the immediately accessible evidence.

"Another on at GC…wait, this one gives some directions, says a new member joined so here's the directions from some where near the park…I guess they where expected to walk" he shrugged.

"Why?" Nox frowned again as he shut off his cell phone.

"Some people like the thought of walking around in the middle of the night…kinda makes you feel like you're the only person left" Danny muttered, not seeming to realise he had spoken.

Again, Nox gave him a thoughtful look, but said nothing "So could we follow these to this… 'den'" he asked.

"Probably" Danny nodded.

"Anything else in this room seem…I don't know, like something we should be lookin at?" Nox asked.

"Nothin jumps out" Danny shrugged.

Nox scanned the room again, looking for anything that seemed like it might hold some clue or hint about where Chelsea had been going, what she might have been doing.

Danny was right. The room was nothing more or less than a young woman's bedroom.

"I don't like being in a vics room after their dead…seems like an unnecessary invasion" Nox shrugged.

"Our whole job is about invading peoples privacy, even if it is for a good cause" Danny seemed to agree "It's worse when it's some one you know" he walked across the room to a pin board covered in photo's, leaning closer to them.

Nox was nodding "I cant deny that…had a case back home where one of our techs was killed in his hallway, right outside the door, turned out to just be some stupid drunken fight that escalated…but we had to search his place…he had pictures of us, other techs…it felt wrong bein in there" he pressed his lips together angrily.

"Like you're betrayin em some how…like by being in there you're proving that you couldn't protect em from the bad things" Danny, again, didn't seem to realise he was talking.

Nox let it slide as Danny pulled one small photo down from the clip board "The little one" he stated "This is the other girl I saw last night" he passed the small photo to Nox.

It was black and white, showing the girl Danny had already described in what looked like a subway car, her face mildly surprised as if she hadn't realised she was being photographed.

"Could you tell what train that was, what route?" Nox pointed to the slightly blurred image behind the girl. She was standing in the otherwise car, leaning against the pole, and the map and route label where on the wall behind her.

"Maybe" Danny gave a half shrug "I'll let a tech take a look" he lipped the photo into his kit, along with the list of email addresses.

"I'm thinking we should find 'the den'" Nox nodded to himself.

"I'm thinking you're right" Danny agreed.

* * *

They waited for the computer tech who worked quickly and quietly to take the computer away. 

Nicole watched them, her face pale, her eyes a little wide, a little too bright.

"When will your parents arrive?" Nox asked her gently.

"Tomorrow" she said, her voice hollow.

"Is there any where you can go until then?" Nox dipped his head and met her eye, forcing her to look at him "Just so you're not alone"

"Uh…my friend Allie, she's gonna pick me up any minute" Nicole nodded to a haphazardly packed overnight bag.

"Good…this is my cell, call if you remember anything you think could be important, or just of you need to talk" Nox handed her a business card, giving her a sad smile "We're so sorry for your loss" he finished as a red haired young woman knocked on the open door.

Nicole saw her and began sobbing as the girl rushed passed Danny and Nox and grabbed her, pulling her into a hug.

"I'm Allie Sims" the woman told Nox "Nicole's staying with me tonight" she seemed almost angry at the cops.

They took her number and left the apartment, telling the tech to explain where they where going to Mac.

As they drove toward Grand Central station, Nox, who drove, coughed as if clearing his throat "So you uh…you get a lot of sleep Messer?" he asked.

Danny, staring out of the window with eyes that where seeing anything but the rain soaked streets they travelled barely reacted to the question.

Nox continued "Cos you look like shit, no offence, and you saw these girls at three am, you seemed to know a lot about insomnia…everything okay with you?"

"Fine" Danny muttered, the response automatic.

"Is it cos of your brother and your friends?" Nox asked bluntly.

Danny blinked and turned to glare at Nox "I don't think you can ask that" he said, his voice flat.

"Really? Because I know about you Messer, I've been 'warned' about you" Nox made damn sure he put disdain into his voice at the last, to make sure Danny understood he had not taken the warnings to heart.

"Yeah?" Danny raised an eye brow but Nox knew he had caught the tone.

"Yeah…you're, if what I've been told is to be believed, a mob spy sent in to tamper with evidence and set other mob guys free, you kill other cops when it suits you, you're in cahoots with a guy named Sonny Sassone and are behind your brother still being in hospital and you risk cases for a game of hand ball. But you're a mean shortstop" he added the last with a smirk.

"They think I hurt my brother?" Danny asked quietly.

Nox frowned "Not that you hurt him physically but they think you and Sassone got more goin on than you tell people"

"They think I was behind my brother bein as sick as he is…who, what are their names?" Danny didn't look angry. He looked sad and tired.

"You don't seem that pissed" Nox noted.

"I'm beyond bein angry. I'm just sick of needing to prove myself to some of these fuckin idiots" Danny slumped in his seat.

"I didn't tell you to upset you" Nox said "I mean according to those same guys, Stella murders her boyfriend on a regular basis, Lindsay lives on a diet of insects and that Sheldon Guy became an ME because he had a Frankenstein complex, then moved up to CSI to get laid" he shrugged as he pulled the car over to the side walk "People are gossips is what I'm trying to say…all the crap I've been told about you, I've never once seen any hint of it in you…all I've seen is that you're killing yourself over stuff you cant help" he raised an eye brow at Danny who shook his head.

He frowned "They said all that crap, and they still mentioned I'm a ball player?" he asked.

"Oh it's the only reason they tolerate you, you keep winning em the soft ball games" Nox stated.

Danny gave a ghost of a smile and climbed out of the car, into the rain.

The 'den' seemed to be a tiny, independent coffee house, just across the street from Grand Central, sandwiched between a clothing store and a restaurant.

"An insomniac meets her friends in a coffee house" Nox noted as they walked through the doors.

The place was half full with coffee drinkers, sitting on couches, armchairs, bean bags, sipping coffee from mismatched mugs, talking to one another about what ever.

No one seemed too concerned by the cops' presence so Danny and Nox headed to the counter that ran the length of the back wall.

A guy in his forties, tall, muscular, with dyed black hair, grown to his waist and pulled back in a braid, wearing a floor length coat with heavy boots and presumably, all black clothes beneath, leaned against the counter, watching the detectives approach.

A young woman behind the counter smiled brightly at them "Welcome to Harry's, what can I get you?" she asked them.

"We're with the NYPD, we're tryna retrace the steps of a girl who was murdered this morning, we think she might have been in here some time in the early hours of this morning, possibly with a group? Calling them selves LibNoc?" Danny explained.

The older Goth guy shoved Danny aside so suddenly that Danny had no chance to brace himself and slammed into Nox hard enough to almost knock him off his feet, against the counter.

The man took off running and Danny immediately gave chase as Nox picked himself up and followed.

The guy ran through the tiny coffee shop, out through the door into the rain, charging up the street as startled New Yorkers hustled to get out of his way, yelling angrily after him.

Danny darted around the people where the guy had simply slammed through them, yelling at the guy to stop.

"NYPD!" Danny barked, feeling a rush of adrenaline as he ran.

The guy ahead of him seemed to decide a straight run wouldn't work and booked left suddenly, darting into the road. The weather had brought most of the traffic to a standstill and the guy weaved between cars as Danny snapped after him, navigating the cars with much more ease. As the guy reached the other side, Danny stepped up onto a car's hood, yelling at people to clear away as he rushed across the hood and off the other side, tackling his guy from behind and taking him to the ground.

They hit the floor hard and the guy had twisted at the last second, so Danny took most of the impact on his ribs, grunting painfully as he tried to roll the guy so he could cuff him.

But the guy was huge and had other plans, fighting the roll and some how managing to twist, bringing up one muscular arm and grabbing at the side of Danny's head, shoving him hard enough that Danny, still kneeling on the ground, slammed into the bank of news paper stands he had narrowly missed hitting with his tackle. The window of the stand cracked and Danny, dazed, froze against it, feeling something warm above his ear almost immediately. The guy tried to get up and run and it was a mistake as Nox came in with a sliding tackle from behind as Danny, snapped back to the real world simultaneously tangled his legs in the runners.

The guy fell forward, flat on his face and Nox lunged forward, grabbing his arms and yanking them back painfully to snap on the cuffs.

"You okay?" Nox shot a look at Danny as the smaller man pressed a hand to the side of his head.

"he dinged me a little" Danny raised his hand to show the bloody cut above his ear, groaning as he clutched his ribs with his other arm.

"You got a name , hairy?" Nox snapped, pulling the guy to his feet angrily.

"Ben Marr" the guy sneered "But that's all I'm sayin"

"You assaulted an officer Ben, in front of a helluva lotta witnesses" Nox smirked "You don't gotta say shit, you're already goin to prison"

"I didn't know he was a cop and I didn't mean to hurt him" Marr protested.

"You did. And, you did" Nox shook his head "What's LibNoc that it made you run?"

"I said I'm not saying anything" Ben scoffed.

"Messer you pressing charges?" Nox reached down a hand to Danny, to help him up.

Danny gripped Nox's arm and stood painfully, hissing at the pain in his ribs again "Yeah I am" he stated "I'd drop em I if I knew what LibNoc was though, and what happened to Chelsea Harper…oh well" he turned and began to walk back toward the car as Nox escorted Ben along with them.

"Wait, wait wait, I…I might say something" Ben growled angrily.

"Oh that's good of you Ben" Nox grinned brightly, "Aint it Messer?" he looked over at Danny and his smile died as he saw the blood now trickling down Danny's neck, the rain making it run faster than it normally would.

"Whoah, Messer" Nox dragged Ben to catch up with Danny, pulling Danny's hand away to look at the cut "We oughta get you to a hospital" he stated.

"Just call EMS,I don't wanna leave what could be our crime scene" Danny shook his head.

"You sure?" Nox asked.

"Yeah!" Danny pressed his hand back against the cut, huddling in on himself, hugging his ribs.

He was visibly shivering, even though the air was still relatively warm and Nox placed a hand on his shoulder, escorting him back toward the jeep.

Danny was hissing between his teeth again as the reached the jeep and Nox shoved Ben in the back, calling for EMS and for Mac while Danny stood in the rain, alone, in pain, but silent.


	3. LibNoc

Chapter 3, basically its some more set up, after this it promises to be lots of angst and pain and all that jazz.

Er, same disclaimers as always i guess, violence, language, content, more OC's, that kind of thing

Er, i had to mix with some things, basically i need for there to be a delay in some of the processing of evidence but not others so if that seems like its an error on my part, its not, its intentional fudging for narrative purposes.

Please Review.

xxx

* * *

The paramedics had set up shop in side the coffee house, sitting Danny down in one corner to examine him. They had insisted he remove his shirt and under shirt so they could look at his ribs and he sat now in just his jeans, hunched over on his uninjured side while one of the medics gently probed his ribs with one gloved hand, trying to feel for any kind of damage that might require x-rays.

Mac was standing just behind the medics, watching Danny's face as the he sat, staring at nothing.

"Just tell me when it hurts" The medic muttered as he pressed the darkening bruise over Danny's ribs. Danny had also managed to take off a layer of skin, grazing himself just enough to bleed.

Mac was troubled by how thin Danny seemed under his clothes. Danny took care of himself, working out regularly, and it showed, but even though the tone was still there, Danny seemed thinner, his ribs seemed more defined beneath his skin. The chain he never removed, a silver chain carrying a small sliver crucifix, a st Christopher medallion and a small ring Mac didn't know the origins of, hung down between collar bones that seemed more prominent, almost pressing against the skin. The tribal tattoo inked to his right shoulder seemed darker than usual against his skin.

"Any time you feel any pain, just, let me know" the medic, a guy named Ken who was often assigned to work on injured cops, said pointedly.

"Danny" Mac said firmly.

Danny blinked and glanced at him, then down at Ken "It's fine" he said quietly, having heard Ken's requests and simply not heeded them.

"Uh huh" Ken said doubtfully and went on working.

"I'll be over here" Mac pointed to the other end of the coffee bar where Nox had sat Ben and was talking to him.

Uniformed officers where talking to the other coffee house patrons as Mac passed them by.

"Ben you cant keep just going quiet, you assaulted a New York police officer, you're in a lot of trouble here. Why not help ya self out huh?" Nox was saying to the sullen faced man.

"I don't see how I can help you" Ben lied.

"According to my detectives you heard the words 'LibNoc' and ran like you had the devil on your ass" Mac put in, taking a seat beside Nox.

Ben glanced at him and shook his head, his thick braid sliding over the leather of his jacket "It's not even like I did anything wrong" he muttered sullenly.

"Before or after you attacked a cop?" Mac asked casually.

"Before-" Ben realised his mistake and bit his lip "I mean…I didn't run cos I hurt that girl…I ran because I…I got a record, I got picked up for weed, did some time for assault…I haven't called my P.O in a while" he finally admitted "That's all"

"It's always the P.O's" Nox shook his head "How stupid are you guys, if you just explain that you haven't called in, we'll usually ignore it but when you run and _hit a cop_, then we got problems"

"What can I do to fix it?" Ben was forcing the words out between clenched teeth.

"What's LibNoc, what does it have to do with Chelsea Harper and what was she doing here last night?" Mac asked.

"Chelsea was a member, like me, of a…support group…for insomniacs. We'd meet up at night, so we wheren't all spending time alone in our bedrooms or where ever. Insomnia can make you feel isolated, lonely. LibNoc…Liberi Noctus, was our group. Sometimes we'd just hang out in places like this, sometimes we'd go to the Park, or to an all night movie…sometimes we would go out, do stuff…pranks, graffiti…anything really. Immature shit, just to fill our time, stuff I haven't done since college you know? It was fun, acting like a kid again. But we didn't kill people" he seemed almost embarrassed admitting about the groups activities " We wouldn't hurt Chelsea. We didn't call her Chelsea though. She called herself Dis when she was at a meeting…I go by Night Owl" he slumped in his seat "No body knew any body's real name, that was part of it…we only existed to one another at night" he almost whispered the last.

"Liberi…Night Children" Nox stated.

"You speak Latin?" Ben glanced up at him, seeming surprised.

"I was raised a catholic, I had it beaten into me" Nox stated, making Ben chuckle until he saw Nox's un amused face. "How did you hear about this group?"

"Email.They have some kind of…I don't know, roving programme, finds people who are frequently on line at like, four or five am…they send emails to you from forums you're on or what ever, explaining that they're a group for people who don't sleep who meet up sometimes, they invite you along. You don't have to go" he shrugged.

"But you did? And Chelsea, Dis, she did too?" Nox was taking those careful, detailed notes again.

"Yeah…Chelsea started coming about six months ago" Ben nodded "She fit in real well, she was friendly, she was fun…she was a sweet kid" he said sadly.

"You ever see her as more than just a sweet kid?" Mac asked the obvious question.

"No!" Ben snapped "I'd never look at these kids like that!"

"How many kids?" Nox asked sharply.

"Not _kids_ they're, college students a lot of em…but even if, they where older, I'm married" he shook his head "look no one in the group would have hurt Chelsea" Ben stressed.

"You say no one knows each others real name…you only keep in touch through emails?" Mac asked.

"Yeah" Ben nodded "Like I said…in the day time, we didn't exist to one another…"

"If you saw one of your members…in a newspaper, reported missing, or found dead…would you react? Would you call the cops if you though you had information that could help?"

"Honestly? We wouldn't have any information to give. We didn't know anything about each other…I don't know how to make that clearer" he shrugged.

"Chelsea told her sister she was seeing some kind of therapist, some one helping her to sleep?" Nox asked.

Ben pressed his lips together, looking off to the side in his refusal to answer.

"We'll come back to that. Who is 'The Guide' he was mentioned in the emails" Nox tried.

Once again, Ben refused to answer.

"Who's this?" Danny asked making Mac and Nox jump as he seemed to materialise out of now where.

He set down the picture he had taken from Chelsea's room on the table infront of Ben.

The big man glanced up at him.

Danny had slipped on a spare scrubs shirt Ken had given him, the dark blue colour making his eyes, skin and hair seeming paler than normal. He had a cut over his right ear, closed with butterfly stitches, blood staining his light hair, that which hadn't been washed away by the rain, and by Ken, still staining his skin. He still hugged his side.

"I don't know" Ben lied.

"Mac I'm gonna want to make a statement" Danny said blankly, keeping his eyes on Ben.

"Aw come on man!" Ben whined "I cant tell you anything useful anyway" he stated.

"Let us decide what's useful" Nox told him.

"I don't know her" Ben shrugged "I mean less than I know the others, she calls herself Pixie, I don't know how anybody who calls her any different, I don't know where she comes from, where she goes…she always arrives alone, and depending on what we end up doing, sometimes she'll leave with some one but she'll always…arrive alone"

"That unusual?" Nox frowned.

"Yes and no…most of us, if we don't wanna be walking along alone, we'll send a group email, asking if any one is going to be coming from a certain neighbourhood…we'd meet up some where and come together. I met Chelsea a couple times, she met some of the other girls, it was just for safety ya know? But Pixie, always came alone" Ben shrugged again.

"What happened last night?" Danny asked as Mac rose from his seat, letting Danny take it.

"The usual, we met up, upstairs. This is _my_ coffee joint, so I said we could meet here. Harry was my dad, passed away a few years back" Ben shifted in his seat "It was just normal. We met, we where talking, Fitz had found out that he could get a few hours of sleep by switching the T.V channel to snow, turning up the volume and covering the screen, the noise…lulled him…no one else had really come up with anything new so we decided to go out. We decided what we where gonna do, Chelsea and Pixie…they went off together some where, the rest of us broke up…that was it. That's how it goes" he shrugged.

"When she left with Pixie was the last time you saw her?" Nox clarified.

"Yeah" Ben nodded.

"Who's runs the site?" Nox asked "Or the meetings, who sends the emails?"

"I couldn't give you any real name" Ben sighed "there are three people who _are_ the guys running it, but I don't know their real names, they call themselves Louis, Claudia and Lestat" he actually did roll his eyes "From Interview With a Vampire" he clarified.

"What's the group called again?" Danny asked.

"Liberi Noctus, Night Children…vampires" Ben explained.

"Wrong" Danny mumbled.

"Uh, I'm not" Ben sniffed.

"You sort of are, when Dracula says 'listen to the children of the night' he's talking about wolves howling outside the castle" Danny said offhandedly "lets get to The Guide, who or what is that? Is it a person, is it drugs?" he asked.

As Ben reluctantly started talking, Mac walked away from the group, over to where Ken was packing away his things. There where a few bloody bandages on the table that Ken scooped up to dispose of casually. The sight of them gave Mac brief pause. He was sick of seeing his detectives blood on bandages, their broken bodies held closed with stitches. He still couldn't get the image of Aidan Burns corpse out of his mind, nor the sensation of Flack's blood oozing from a torn artery in his chest after the bombing. He recalled seeing Stella, battered and bloody in a hospital after Frankie attacked her, Danny's haunted face after he may have shot an undercover police officer, the cut on his head from the fleeing suspects attack. Mac didn't like to see his people hurt and even though today had been minor, Danny was still in pain, still bloodied. "How is he Ken, it's not as if he's gonna tell me?" Mac glanced at the medic.

Ken sighed, shrugging "His head wound isn't too deep, and he didn't seem disoriented or dizzy, nothing to make me think he's concussed. I told him to go ahead and go the hospital if he thinks he might be feeling funny. The ribs, are the same, I gave him something for the pain but I don't think it's more than a bad bruise, at worst a slight crack, nothing I can help with unless he wants to go to the hospital. What he's best doing is going home, getting himself some ice and relaxing for the rest of the day" he explained.

"Right, like that's gonna happen" Mac smirked.

"I figured as much" Ken returned the smirk "What I'm more concerned about is how he looked under his clothes"

Mac raised an eye brow "Ken I know you prefer men but, is that really appropriate?" he grinned.

Ken laughed, shrugging again "look, you guys played against us in the softball games a few months ago…I might have checked him out when he was changing his shirt between innings…he's a good looking guy" Ken murmured a little dreamily.

"Ken" Mac nudged his friend.

"Right…I don't like how much weight he seems to have lost between then, and now…how's he been lately, how has he seemed to you?" Ken glanced over at where Danny and Nox where still talking to Ben.

"Honestly? I'm worried, really worried. I don't think he's sleeping. I haven't actually seen him eat in a while…to be honest, it's only lately I've noticed anything wrong…the way things have been, all I've seen of him his has been his work, his reports at the end of a case, which have been excellent as usual, so I didn't think anything. But now…" Mac shrugged helplessly "I think I know what's behind it but there's nothing I can do to fix it"

"What do you think it is?" Ken asked.

"His brother, Aidan, Flack…I think it's all just gotten to him" Mac sighed "And I cant just tell him everything's going to be okay because, I don't know that it is. Aidan was his best friend and she died. She died painfully and alone…and he cant go to Flack with his problems which he normally would…and…no one likes to say it, but the doctors aren't sure Louie Messer is gonna wake up" he lowered his voice for the last.

"Jesus" Ken breathed "Well look…all I can say is, keep your eye on him, if he seems to be getting worse…refer him to the department head shrinker…if he seems to be losing any more weight…hold him down and force feed him a hamburger" Ken shrugged "I doubt he's intentionally starving himself, maybe just get him in a situation where he has to eat, in a restaurant or something…I wish I could tell you more…keep an eye on his head" Ken pointed over his own ear, meaning Danny's new wound "He seems more than just bumped around…"

"We'll bring him in, thanks Ken" Mac gave the man a wave as he and his young partner left.

Danny and Nox approached, leaving a now un cuffed Ben at the table "he told us everything he knew and he's said we can poke around the upstairs room, apparently it's where the group hangs out. He also agreed to contact the other group members and try and get them to come in and talk to us" Nox explained "I called his PO, guy didn't even know Ben hadn't called in, asked us not to press charges cos it could mean his ass as much as Bens"

Danny spoke up "Apparently the Guide and this therapist, are one and the same, but he's Doctor Constantine Guide been at the groups since before Ben joined a year ago, he thinks maybe three or four years" he was glancing around as he spoke "Apparently, Ben hasn't tried it out but the guy has…sessions, with over half the members, of whom, at last count, there a twenty, but the number rises and falls as people stop coming or new members turn up. There is a core group, the founders with the vampire names, a few others, and that one girl 'Pixie' but not even the founders know her beyond the meetings"

"And you saw her with the vic… Well I don't like the sound of this 'Doctor Guide'…if he's as mysterious as she is…are she and the Guide in cahoots?" Mac asked.

"Not that Ben knows, he doubts it though, she doesn't seem to like him" Nox stated "Ben agreed to come to the station later and take a look at some pictures of the other victims, see if any of them are former members…I guess we're gonna have to see if we can link them to LibNoc huh?" Nox asked.

"Seems that way" Mac sighed "You okay?" he asked Danny.

"Yeah" Danny said dully.

Mac bit the inside of his cheek. "You guys go upstairs, see what you can see…I'll go make a start on the other victims histories" he told them, turning away from them.

He heard Nox call out a good bye but heard nothing from Danny as he walked toward the door, heading for his car.

* * *

Nox raised an eye brow at the sight of the roaches in an ashtray, set upon a table which was pushed against one wall of the room. "Yeah, they definitely go for the herbal route in an attempting to get to sleep" he shook his head, turning back to the main room.

The floor was covered in deep, old carpets and cushions while more sofas and arm chairs where scattered around the small room, creating a kind of "It actually is a den" Danny noted.

"Stinks of grass in here" Nox wrinkled his nose.

"I'd be surprised if it hadn't" Danny said "Check this out" he was shining a U.V light on one of the couches, causing a stain to glow.

"Oh my" Nox raised an eye brow "Our little gang of non sleepers sure are busy at night" he joked.

Danny swabbed the stain "Could be from consensual sex…could be from a rape…" he sprayed luminol around the room.

"You think this could be where she died?" Nox stepped aside as Danny shone his light around the room.

Danny winced as he had to lift his arm, hesitating briefly before seeming to just push through it "It's a place to start at least" he stated. The luminol showed up some blood, but no where near enough to have come from a cut throat, no matter how shallow the cut was.

There where one or two drops that probably came from a small cut or nose bleed, which Danny swabbed, but the room didn't turn up much else.

There was a shred of paper dropped near the door, a small scattering of some kind of dry leaf or herb, all of which Danny bagged, but the room was otherwise empty of anything Danny felt he could use.

"So what do we have"? Nox asked.

"Okay…Chelsea was meeting with a…support group…of fellow insomniacs at night slash early morning, they would either hang out here or places like here, obviously smoking weed and probably drinking, or they would go out on the streets and screw around, either way, they where almost always in groups or at least pairs" Danny became more vocal as he slipped into work mode.

"So this kid Pixie goes off with Chelsea and that's the last anyone sees of her" Nox stated "Which would seem to say Pixie's our killer"

"Except…from what I saw of her, I'm not convinced she could physically hold Chelsea down to smother her, and there's no way she killed the last victim, the Queen had close to two feet of height and probably a hundred and fifty pounds on her, all muscle" Danny frowned "I guess he could have been drugged but there was nothing more in his system than a little booze, nothing that coulda put him clean out"

"So…what, Pixie either left her alone or she's working with the killer?" Nox guessed.

"Yep…or she herself is in trouble" Danny suggested.

Nox nodded.

"So we know…Chelsea had been meeting Doctor Guide…who just seems weird and I haven't even met him" Danny said "So we need to talk to him, to Pixie, to the people who run the site" he listed.

"We need to get complete autopsy report on Chelsea" Nox put in.

Danny nodded.

"You need to get some sleep" Nox added and Danny shot him a dark look.

Nox held up his hands in a 'backing off' gesture "We should go back to lab, you geeks can geek while I go through the files on the other vics" he stated.

Danny picked up his kit, wincing, audibly gasping as it strained his ribs. He walked past Nox, heading for the stairs, fuming silently.

* * *

"How are Sheldon and Lindsay enjoying the conference?" Stella Bonasera smiled at Mac as she walked into the room, tucking her curling hair back behind her ears and securing it with a band even as she drifted over to his side to look at what he was working on.

"Lindsay got sunburned and Sheldon met a _very_ nice ME from Chicago named Matilda" Mac chuckled "Sending them seems to have worked out okay though, they're learning a lot"

"Well you or I couldn't have gone, and I think Danny would have murdered you just for suggesting it" Stella stated.

Mac couldn't help but smile. "So it what are you up to?" Stella picked up one on the files, thumbing through it with a frown,

Mac explained about the case, the potential link between all the victims

"I heard Danny took a couple lumps?" Stella sat down, automatically scanning the files to help Mac out.

"Takin down a runner, nothing too bad, or so he'd have you believe" Mac shrugged "He's playing tough guy"

"As usual" Stella mused "So what are he and Detective Miles doing?" she glanced up.

"Haranguing Sid for the autopsy, I expect his irate call any minute" Mac told her.

* * *

Chelsea had been stripped, the heavy, water stained make up cleaned from her face, leaving her pale, her hair swept back leaving her features open and very obviously pretty. She looked younger than her twenty three years, even with her tall build and athletic frame, the way her head was crooked by the head rest, the way her lips where pursed together. She looked like a petulant child.

Sid Hammerback was inches away from her naked chest, leaning over the neat stitches he had used to close her body up after the autopsy. To any one who didn't know Sid, it would seem perverted, as if he was doing something _wrong_ to the girls corpse, but Danny knew Sid and knew he took nothing sexual away from being so close to the bare breast.

"There is a smudge here that I fear I may be responsible for…" Sid murmured "I had blood on my gloves as I stitched her up. Don't want to send her to her parents looking messy now" he raised a damp sponge and wiped the small, bloody smudge away, putting the sponge with the other swabs and rags he had used and taken from the body, making a note that he had left the bloody mark during the autopsy, that he had removed it.

He turned back to her pale body and raised the sheet up to her shoulders, settling it in place gently with a resigned sigh.

"COD was smothering" the grey haired ME said, indicating the large, hand shaped bruise over Chelsea's nose and mouth "Unusually, looking at the bruise, the thumb is closer to the chin, beneath the lips, meaning the killer held her like this…" he stepped closer to the bed, crooking his arm some what uncomfortably, holding his hand over her nose and mouth with his pinky finger and ring finger covering her nose, the main part of his palm over her mouth, his thumb on her chin, matching the bruise perfectly, even down to size.

"You got something you want to tell us Doc?" Nox raised an eyebrow.

Sid spared him a minute smile "I do have an alibi" he said cryptically "But what I'm trying to show you is, this is a position that would be easier to achieve if I could get…on top of her, or _stand_ in front of her…it's a position I would almost call casual, if I was in the right position in front of her it would enable to to stand quite comfortably for some time"

"She died slowly" Danny said grimly.

"More than that…while I stood slowly suffocating her, I could, with my free hand" he raised a scalpel and held it over the wound across her throat, drawing it left to right slowly "I could cut her throat" he explained "The victim…was smothered slowly, I can tell you that from looking at her lungs. There was barely enough petichial haemorrhaging to indicate she strained all that much…if the smothering had been more violent, there would be more signs. I would say that he smothered her but would release his hand every now and then, let her breath a little…it would have been torture for her, thinking she would be able to breath only to have it cut off again. He probably did this repeatedly, giving her less and less air each time" he explained.

"Shit" Nox shook his head angrily "What about her throat?"

"As you accurately reported Danny, the wound was deep enough to bleed but it wouldn't have been fatal, even if she had not been suffocated, this wound wouldn't have ended her, life, she would have been able to stem the bleeding herself, may not even need stitches…it's an interesting wound, other than causing the victim a great deal of pain, it would have no bearing on her death" Sid looked up at them both "The wound to her throat was about causing her pain, and probably part of the gratification the killer felt…she…was raped, or at least molested, there was no DNA, also, and I found signs of on going physical and sexual assault, but nothing…major…the cuts, you spotted on her arm, are the same as the throat wound, shallow…they're also much thinner…as if made by a different type of blade…her wrist, something very thin, her neck…nothing other than it's depth stood out. Right to left indicating the killer is right handed which matches the bruising on her mouth. Tox already came back and told us sweet F A" Sid glanced up at them "She had been drinking, some cannabis, not enough to render her defenceless" he held their gaze briefly, as if waiting for something.

"Where there any signs she was restrained or tied down?" Danny asked suddenly, frowning.

Sid smiled that grim smile "I was waiting for some one to ask. No" he looked at their faces, judging their reactions.

"Doc, if some one smothered her, slowly, and cut her throat…what did she just lay there and let him?" Nox shook his head as if unable to comprehend the thought.

"It looks that way" Sid shrugged.

"Some one's smothering you…that can be sexual, you might lay there and take it and not realise they where killing you, its…what's it called, autoerotic asphyxiation…some one cuts you with a knife, I don't care how shallow it is, you don't take that, not on your throat" Nox said the last in a quiet, un compromising tone and Sid glanced toward that scar on his neck, that started toward his throat before jerking so suddenly back, as if who ever had done it had tried to cut his throat and he had reacted, pulling himself away from the blade.

"So she was…she had to be drugged, or restrained in some way we cant see" Danny exclaimed.

"There's no sign of it, no sign she fought back other than those faint bruises on her arms but even they would indicate only the feeblest of physical protests" Sid shrugged.

"Doc, it's human reaction, if there is a knife at your throat, you fight" Nox stated again.

"I understand that gentlemen, I'm just telling you what I found" Sid said quietly.

"Is there any way she can have been tied down in some way that wouldn't leave a mark?" Danny asked.

"Well, Detective Miles here is correct, if she was capable, our victim would have fought back, even soft restraints would have left some tell tale sign" Sid told them "There are drugs that can become untraceable" Danny noted "Remedies that could knock her out"

"Her TOD was not long before she was found, there aren't a lot of drugs or remedies that degrade very quickly, even less that degrade as quickly as that, even less again in a dead body that isn't metabolising it…unless we're dealing with something rarely or never before seen, I don't know of anything that could be strong enough to subdue a strong young woman completely enough that she couldn't fight back _at all_" Sid gave a half shrug "I have, how ever, emailed some colleagues of mine who deal with…native and aboriginal medicines and hypnotic techniques"

"Hypnotism?" Danny asked.

"Not as in a shrink with a pocket watch, a lot of tribes use…well essentially drugs, to induce trances…peyote buttons used by native Americans to induce vision quests, that sort of thing…some, did little more than put people to sleep or paralyse them…I've asked my colleagues about anything that would disappear from the body as quickly our time frame of a few hours…" he gave another shrug.

"What about stomach contents?" Nox asked.

"Alcohol, the remains of a veggie burger and some fries and water" Sid told them "No pills, no peyote buttons" he said by way of example.

"There's a cut, behind her ear?" Danny asked.

"That did confuse me, there was some rust in it, I sent it to the lab, seems like she was…pushed against something, maybe a rusted nail or jagged edge of something…it wouldn't have knocked her unconscious before you ask, the wound was, just the skin, but it's oddly positioned…going on my theory she was standing or sitting upright when she was smothered, I would say this was in the wall, or head rest behind her, like I say, its not deep, so even if she was pushed against it, it wasn't with a lot of force, I would say it happened while she was being smothered" Sid explained.

"So all in all…she didn't fight, our killer's fucking psychotic and there's nothing that might explain _why_ she didn't fight back" Danny summarised.

"So….shit" Nox took it further.

"We got…really…nothing" Danny lipped his lower lip, his habitual reaction to bad news.

He looked down at Chelsea, shaking his head angrily "This guy has killed six more people, that we even know of" he took a breath "We have to find the Guide"

* * *

Hours scouring the case files brought nothing more than what was already suspected, that the victims had been members of Liberi Noctus. It was a start, but it had taken hours to find the signs, the statements from the victims neighbours and families that they had been going out at night.

Danny and Stella left Mac and Nox to the files while they worked on the trace evidence picked up at Harry's, and from Chelsea's body.

They had started on what had come from Chelsea, the fingernails scrapings, the combings from her hair, what little Hammerback had taken from her groin to attest to the rape.

"You got anything?" Stella asked.

Danny was analysing dirt which had come from Chelsea's shoes "Nope" he muttered, glaring at the dirt through a microscope "Generic dirt, she probably walked through some muddy puddle and it dried on her shoes" he shrugged "I'm moving onto what I got from the coffee house, those weird ass herbs" he shrugged.

Stella, working on the rust from the wound on Chelsea's neck sighed "Well the rust is fresh, what ever it came off've only recently became expose to the air" she read from a computer "It came off something steel…what!" She looked up in alarm at the 'whoah' that had come from Danny.

"They dissolved" Danny stated.

"What did?" Stella moved to Danny's side.

"The herbs, I put some of em in a test tube and added some water, sterile water and they dissolved completely" he spoke slowly as if he was running over something in his head.  
"That mean something?" Stella frowned.

"I don't know yet…maybe" Danny shook his head, "I'll just…test this" he held up the test tube.

"Might take a little while, they've been having some problems with some of the equipment" Stella explained, "tag it and leave it for a tech for now"

Danny nodded, doing what she had told him and retuning to the evidence they had collected "The DNA and blood we swabbed from the coffee house" he said half to himself "Gimme a name" he muttered as he leaned forward to begin work.

* * *

Nothing. Danny was back on his windows seat, one hand reaching out of the window, feeling the rain fall against his skin in a steady thrumming beat. The blood and DNA had matched one another, but brought no names in any DNA databases, and the trace evidence, the herbs, where being very slowly analysed.

Mac had sent everyone home after hours had turned up plenty of evidence, but nothing to lead them anywhere new until they could talk to either the founders of Liberi Noctus, or to the Guide.

Danny had tried to stay late, hoping he could get some extra work in but Mac had all but escorted him from the building, insisting he go home and sleep off the injuries he had sustained.

Danny had, grudgingly, after a shower had caused the pain in his ribs to flare up again, popped two pain killers, part of him hoping he would be drowsy enough to sleep. He had even lain in bed, feeling himself beginning to drift. He had been imagining himself teetering over the edge of a canyon of sleep, balancing precariously on the lip, hoping he would lose the natural fight for balance and tip forward. He even felt himself begin to fall over that lip, feel the soothing caress of sleep washing over his mind but then his eyes opened.

There was no reason for it, he didn't hear anything or sense something may be wrong, he simply blinked and he was wide awake.

He had not been in pain, so he knew the pain killers where working, his mind and body simply didn't want to sleep, and so he sat. He had made himself a mug of hot chocolate, nursing it in one hand while he felt the rain with his other. The cats where curled up in their baskets across the room, so Danny was totally alone.

He half expected to see Pixie again but he was still surprised when she rounded that same corner as the night before, alone, seeming unconcerned by the rain.

She wore that same tight black t with a hood, a jeans, sneakers.

Danny threw off the blanket he'd had over his knees, grabbing his keys, his badge and his cell phone and running for the door.


	4. Pixie

Chapter 4, Danny meets Pixie and learns more about The Guide, action, woo!

Same disclaimers, more OC's er , no shipping, no pairing, just so you all know, my OC's arent set up to pair with the main chracters.

Love the reviews, Please keep Reviewing.!

xxxxxx

* * *

She stood watching him approach, her face a mix of amusement, mild surprise and genuine curiosity. She didn't look scared of the strange man who had yelled her name across a rain soaked street at three am.

As Danny got closer, he saw the butterfly knife she held bare in her hand, the glint in her eye that promise that she would use it if she felt she needed to. "I'm a cop" Danny said, holding his badge up for her to see, already soaked through by the ceaseless ever falling rain.

"Oh" Pixie gave him a lilting smile, but she didn't put the knife away.

"I'm not here to hurt you" Danny assured her "Do you remember me from last night?"

"Sure" she nodded once, slowly "Window guy" she stated.

Her black hair was, where it wasn't hidden beneath a hood, plastered against her head, her pale skin. Up close she stood about 5'4, looked to be at least 20.

"Yeah, but I usually go by Danny" Danny ran a hand through his now damp hair, giving her a small smile.

"You want something?" Pixie's accent was as distinctly New Yorkan as Danny's "I'm not a pro" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah I guessed that…you went by here yesterday, with a girl" Danny stated, squinting in the rain.

"Dis" Pixie told him "She called her self, Dissss" she drew out the 'S' seeming to savour the sound.

"Dis…what does that mean?" Danny asked her.  
"Dis…_dis_appointment, _dis_appear, _dis_used…Did" Pixie shrugged "Dis, its….a negative"

"her family called her Chelsea" Danny told her.

He was shivering and the movement made his ribs ache.

"Called…what happened?" She frowned slightly, stepping minutely closer to him.

"You tell me, near as I know you where the last person seen with her" Danny said through chattering teeth.

"Come with me?" she asked.

"Where?" Danny frowned.

She gave him a smirk and rolled her eyes, walking off in the direction she'd been heading. She flicked the blade of her knife back in and slipped her hands in her pocket, keeping them there, keeping the blade at hand.

Danny followed her, figuring her route out quickly as she approached a brightly lit 24 hour diner

"I know this joint" Danny muttered as he followed Pixie inside.

She walked over to the counter, leaning forward to talk to the bored looking kid standing behind it.

"Can I get a burger with everything and extra fries?" she asked coolly "You want anything?" She glanced back at Danny.

He knew the restaurant from his wanderings around his neighbourhood, knew their food was good food. "Can I get a chilli dog?" he smirked.

Pixie relayed the order and walked over to a booth, sliding in and pulling her knees up so she seemed huddled by the window.

Danny slid in opposite her. "So what happened to Dis?" Pixie asked.  
Her eyes where a vibrant green under the bright lights, framed by smudged black mascara, eye shadow and liner.

"You bring her here?" Danny asked.

"She was veggie, they do a great veggie burger" Pix said by way of explanation.

"Did she leave here with you?" Danny asked.

"Nope, I wanted dessert, she said she had some place to be" Pixie shrugged "You can ask bean pole behind the counter, I stayed" she pointed to the lanky, sullen faced kid.

"Where did she go?" Danny asked as the teen carried their food over.

"I think she was meeting that ass wipe Guide" Pixie picked at a fry, "But like I said, what's happened to Dis?" she said the last with emphasis, indicating she wouldn't answer any more questions.

"She's dead. She was suffocated to death and her throat was cut" Danny said bluntly.

Pixie raised an eye brow as she took a bite of her burger.

Danny started in on his chilli dog as she quietly ate at least half the burger before setting it down, folding her arms on the table.

"Who did it?" she asked, seeming to have to make an effort to keep calm.

"Some people think you" Danny told her.

"I might be strong but I couldn't have suffocated Dis" Pixie stated.

"That's what we figured, so we're wondering who, hoped you might have an idea" Danny told her.

He wasn't sure why, but he trusted her. He couldn't tell if it was just the honesty he could see, in here eyes, or the confidence with which she said it. She could be faking, he knew, she could be an expert con artist. But he didn't think she was. He didn't feel she was a bad person. Odd maybe, but not bad.  
"You're a cop who doesn't sleep?" Pixie asked "Surely that's damaging to how well you work"

"I manage. You sleep at all?" he asked.

She gave him a small smile and a gallic shrug.

Danny sighed "You got any idea who killed your friend? She wasn't the first"

"She wasn't my friend" Pixie stated.

Danny cocked his head to the side "Fine. Some one killed the girl you where with last night. Do you know who did it?"

"You should come to a meeting" Pixie said "Once you get over the whole wannabe vampire goth crap, they're a pretty decent bunch of people, just looking for friends" she gave a slightly sad smile, then smirked, snickering.

"They're good people but jesus that was cheesy" she laughed.

Danny smiled "Where do you live in daytime?" he continued eating his food.

"Where ever" she shrugged cryptically.

Danny sighed again "The cryptic shit's getting old" he stated.

"You want to know who I suspect killed Dis? And all the others" She said.

"You know about the others…I only said Chelsea wasn't the first, she could have been the second" Danny pulled that old cop trick, feeling a glimmer of amusment that he seemed to be referancing Dick Tracy.

"Un like the dummies at the club, I pay attention to the news, to shit that happens in the day…I also have a better idea of who at the group was who. Dis was killed by the same guy who killed at least six other people, who killed Cherry…who killed my friend two months ago" Pixie was hissing under her breath as if to keep from shouting.

"Cherry…the Drag Queen?" Danny asked.

"My friend" Pixie said sadly.

"Who?" Danny asked.

"Finish your food, and I'll take you" she stated.

Danny frowned but she ignored him, and went back to her burger.

* * *

They where walking through a narrow alley way, Danny having to duck slightly to avoid low hanging rags and sheets that had been draped across the alleyway for some reason Danny wasn't clear about.

The sodium pool from the street light ended and Danny found himself stepping into the near perfect darkness that occupied so many places in New York city, cursing as his body instinctively reacted, forcing him to slide his feet, to hunch over to avoid injury.

He felt a hand in his and closed his fingers around Pixie's as she explained "There's a route through some boxes and junk, if you don't know the way you can get hurt just go where I lead you" she told him calmly.

"Why are you guys so secretive?" Danny asked as he was carefully led left and right. He automatically memorised the route.

"I think they don't want it to become like, a trendy thing that gets ruined by...tourists or who ever" Pixie told him, "I don't know, I think it's part of the vampire thing"

"Speaking of which, whats up with your name, that real?" Danny heard the rattle of a glass bottle skittering across the floor.

"It's what I'm called" Pixie stated, "Always for now" she muttered the last.

She pulled up short and a door opened in the darkness, soft light flowing into the alley from the building.

"Some old back entrance from a theatre we think, Claudia claims she found it but she couldn't find her ass with both hands" Pixie explained.

"We had your boy Ben…ugh, Night Owl, on orders to tell us if there was a meeting" Danny frowned.

"Guess he lied" Pixie shrugged.

She walked up the small flight of stairs ahead of them, through a short corridor, emerging in what Danny agreed, seemed to be the stage of a theatre, albeit a tiny one.

There where just over half a dozen people laying, relaxing on the stage which had been decorated similarly to the den in Harry's coffee house.

The smell of weed, incense and alcohol was in the air, and rock music played softly from some where. Ben lay semi conscious on a cushion.

"Pixie" a tall girl with dyed blonde hair styled carefully into wringlets, her face painted deathly white and Danny noticed, pretty effective make up that looked like deep blue veins creeping across her skin, rose from her crouch near another man with long blonde hair and walked towards Pixie and Danny.

She wore the tight corset that seemed appropriate to a Vampire wannabe, lots of lace and velvet coloured in deep blues and purples with a pair of skin tight black jeans. She was skinny as a rail and Danny suspected an eating disorder as she pulled Pixie into a long hung. Pixie raised her eye brow at Danny over the girls shoulder and he smirked at her cynical expression.

"Have you heard? Dis was killed" the girl said, her voice void of any actually sadness or sympathy.

"Yeah Claudia, I heard. This guy told me" Pixie pointed to Danny who tried to wave but was pulled into a bony hug.

"Welcome" Claudia gave him one of those smiles that was supposed to seem, welcoming.

"Hi" Danny said.

"You're like us, you don't sleep" the girl, Claudia actually reached up and touched Danny's face, causing him to flinch back automatically.

"He's with me Claudia" Pixie said pointedly.

Claudia moved away from Danny, leaving him with a flirtatious smile.

"I want to introduce him to the doctor, is he here?" Pixie asked.

"He is…he'll be glad of a new client, he said he finished with some one last night, one of his long timers" Claudia turned away from them and walked back toward the main stage.

"Dr Constantine" she called gently, we have a new member, Pixie brought him" she stated.

The man who stood was the most unremarkable guy Danny had ever seen. He was about six feet even, average build, sandy brown hair similar to Danny's, average blue eyes, face bland and unmemorable.

"I am Doctor Constantine Guide" he said politely, holding his hand out.

"Danny" Danny stated, taking the hand and shaking it.

"Vir Vacuus" Guide cocked his head to one side as he regarded Danny.

"Scuse me?" Danny frowned as he took his hand back.

"Man Without Sleep" Pixie muttered from beside Danny.

"Pixie…I want to treat you sweetie, when will you let me guide you to sleep, I know how tired you are" Guide smiled kindly at the girl.

"I like being awake" Pixie said blankly.

"Doctor? I need to talk to you about-" Danny started, but Pixie grabbed his arm from behind himand squeezed and Danny, realising he couldn't ask about Chelsea smoothly changed tac "your methods, I hear you use herbal remedies? Is there like a tea I could buy that could help?" he asked.

"There are…commercially available teas that can relax your body but the problem lays in your mind. I use certain teas and vocal therapy to train your mind to shut itself off, let your bodies natural sleep patterns take hold" Guide explained.

"Vocal therapy?" Danny frowned.

"Hypnotism" Pixie said, sounding less than impressed.

"It's not...hypnotism in the…sense Pixie thinks. She assumes I use a pocket watch or a light to induce the trance, but what I do is…more natural than that, I cant make you do something you don't want to, I simply…help your brain slow down to the point where you naturally fall asleep as there is simply no other option…most insomniacs, though they don't always realise it, are kept awake by their mind mulling over problems they're encountering in their day to day lives" Guide led them over to one of the couches, inviting them to sit.

Danny lowered himself slowly, his ribs aching as Pixie curled up on the arm rest like a cat, balanced and poised.

"How long have you been an insomniac Danny?" Guide asked., eying Danny's injured side briefly.

"Since I was a kid I guess" Danny said truthfully.

"Has it gotten worse recently?" Guide leaned back comfortably in the seat.

"Yeah, the last few months, I used to be able to force myself to get four or five hours but then a few months back, it sort of…I just kept finding myself awake…it goes on for a few days at a time…I'll just go with out any sleep…then eventually I'll just crash, sheer exhaustion will just" Danny made a slicing motion with his hand "level me, and I'm out for…five, six hours, same happens the next night, maybe once again, then I'm wide awake again, like I used up all my tired for the month or something" Danny was not lying.

Guide nodded "The past few months, what's been your emotional state?" Guide asked him.

"Pretty erratic…a few people close to me…they got hurt recently, uh, one of em was killed" Danny wasn't faking his faltering.

"I'm sorry to hear that" Guide seemed genuinely sympathetic.

Claudia wandered off vaguely, clearly using and high.

"Your mind is stopping you from sleeping" Guide stated "it's running over and over what's happened to you recently, even if you're not aware of it, part of your brain is probably dealing with…all the guilt, or remorse or anger or…all of the above you're feeling…it keeps you awake"

"So what can I do?" Danny frowned.

"I think you should be a patient of mine…I think I can help you Danny" Guide smiled.

"That…would be great" Danny returned the grin, forcing it, "But…I've had people claim they could help me before and they've screwed me over…is there like, any way I could talk to some one you've treated?"

"I've treated almost every one here" Guide cast his hand around.

"No offence Doc but if they're here…kinda goes against you" Danny chuckled sheepishly.

"I haven't had long term therapy with everyone here" Guide smiled.

"Could I talk to some one you have had longer term sessions with? Maybe the person you finished with last night?" Danny leaned forward, seeming eager but in reality, moving into better light to see how Guide reacted to the question.

The mans face didn't change but something in his eyes flinched and Danny saw it. And he knew Danny had seen it.

"I don't keep in contact with my patients" Guide shrugged "As I'm sure you know, nobody here keeps in contact with anyone else during the day…I have the same policy" he explained "I couldn't give you a number or email address if I wanted" he seemed apologetic.

"That's okay, Claudia could send out a group email, you save all the email addresses right?" Pixie called to the skinny girl who was rolling what looked like a joint.

"Sure" Claudia smiled.

"Could you send an email to everyone asking if one of his successes, some one who's left, could come to another meeting, meet Danny…or email him at least?" Pixie glanced slyly at Guide "Once you're trained to sleep you don't break out of it right? So they couldn't come to a meeting if they wanted to" there was a faint edge in her tone and Danny noticed Guide twitch ever so slightly.

"No, Pixie, they couldn't…you'd know that if you'd just have one session with me" some how, even though his tone was friendly, there was a threat in the words.

"I'll send out the email" Claudia called, pulling a pen from somewhere and scribbling the memo on her arm.

"Thanks" Danny smiled, turning back to Guide who was staring at Pixie.

"You don't need references" Guide stated "But I understand…" he checked his watch "I have to leave" he shrugged as Claudia protested "I have to be at work tomorrow" he explained "Email me with the next meeting?" he walked over to Claudia and hugged her goodbye, waving to the remaining, stoned or drunk members. Those that wheren't mostly catatonic where talking quietly to one another, and called gentle goodbyes to Guide.

"I'll see you next time Danny?" Guide asked.

"Sure" Danny gave him the widest shit eating grin he was capable of which dropped as soon as the man walked out of sight.

"That's the guy" Pixie told him "The _guy_" she stressed.

"Well he's plenty creepy" Danny admitted "Was Chelsea meeting him last night?"

"Yep" Pixie nodded "I mean she didn't say anything but he was at Harry's and I saw them talking"

"Well it's a start" Danny nodded "Could we find out who he really is?" he asked her quietly.

"I could follow him if you wanted" Pixie told him.

Danny stood, guiding her out of the stage area and into the short corridor "Why are you so willing to help me?" he asked her "I don't get the feeling you're crazy about cops, but you're going out of your way to help me, a guy you met an hour ago, out"

Pixie chewed one painted nail.

"See, some one so willing to help in way that leads so easily to a potential suspect with whom I have witnessed my helper have...animosity, that makes me wonder if I should listen to a damn word you say, how do I know you aren't setting Guide up for _your_ fall?" Danny asked.

"Look I just showed you a guy I think is odd" Pixie stated "I have reason to be suspicious of him, every one he has 'therapy' with, they don't come back"

"Maybe he fixed em" Danny pointed out.

"I know for sure that the last three people who died, from this group, including Chelsea, where seeing him" Pixie told him "I bet the others did, I could tell you if you show me pictures"

"A lot of the people from these meetings see this guy right? Why aren't their more bodies?" Danny asked.

"How the fuck do I know, maybe he only kills certain ones" Pixie shrugged.

Danny pressed his lips together, glancing back at the stage area "Why?" he asked.

"I don't know" Pixie whispered.

"Could you follow him home and not be seen?" he asked her.

"Yes" Pixie said without hesitation.

"Why are you so good at it?" Danny raised an eye brow.

She smirked, trapping the tip of her tongue between her lips, shaking her head "Just am. But I have to go soon" she told him.

"You call me" Danny strode over to Claudia and took her pen walking back and, grabbing Pixie's arm and writing his cell phone number on her fore arm "Call me with his address, don't try and confront him, _at all_" he stressed.

"Do I seem stupid to you?" Pixie frowned.

"You're hilarious. Can you still find him if you leave now?" Danny asked.

"I'll have to wander around a little to find him but he wont have gotten far" she took her arm back and began to walk away "I'll let you know"

She gave him a wave and turned, walking away.

Danny glanced back at the group. He walked to where Ben was sitting staring at nothing and used Claudia's pen to scribble a note on the palm of his hands. Dropping the pen, Danny followed after Pixie, emerging in the alley way and stopping, realising he would have to navigate his way out alone.

He closed his eyes, recalling the mental map he had taken when they first entered, blocking out the sound of the rain as he imaging the route as a line drawn on a map and opened his eyes again.

He pictured the line, 'laying' it over the alley way ahead and edging forward along it carefully.

Moving slowly, he found himself nearing the pool of light from the stop light when some thing struck him in the side, over his injured ribs, causing him to gasp and freeze, enabling some one to drag him back away from the light, throwing him down onto his back hard enough that his head struck the floor.

He saw a flash of white and the blackness in front of him seemed to somehow shift as he tried to roll into his side, to get to the pool of light. Something that felt very much like a boot hit his ribs again and Danny cried out, automatically curling in on himself, his arms moving to block his ribs. He opened his eyes and saw the flashing white strobe like light of a flashlight being moved around as the boot hit his arms, his legs. A hand came down and struck his face, another kick jarred his ribs, the blows raining down as Danny made himself as small as he could, trying to think past the pain in his side.

He managed to grab to foot and twisted it hard, sending his attacker staggering to one side, away from Danny.

Gasping raggedly, Danny forced himself to his hands and knees and began to crawl to ward the pool of light, feeling some how that he would be safer there.

He was half a foot away when some one latched onto his ankle and he was jerked backwards, his arms giving way sending him to his stomach.

A hand was suddenly on his head, thunking his head against the floor again and Danny felt that swim of reality as the hand slid down from his head to his mouth, the palm sliding roughly across Danny's lips as he was flipped onto his back.

Danny's mind shrieked but his body was too hurt for him to bring up his arms, take out the attacker's elbow and Danny felt the pressure behind the hand increase, the fingers close over his nose and mouth.

He could feel blood on his head, taste in his mouth. He searched the almost pitch darkness, trying to see something, anything, any detail of his attacker but there was nothing more that a moving shadow.

His lungs realised he was being smothered and began to ache for air and Danny reached up with one hand to the attackers, grabbing at his fingers, while with his other hand he reached for his pocket. He fought to bend one of the fingers back but the attacker was too strong and the ache was becoming a sharper, more insistent pain and need to breath but Danny simply could not draw air. He began to see white spots as he tried to remember how to get his hand into his pocket, the suddenly very complicated procedure of navigating the cloth to reach what was there.

He could draw air, a minute breath but he sucked it in through his nose, feeling his head begin to clear almost at once. The pressure stayed gone and Danny took as many breaths as he was able, reaching into his pocket with ease now, withdrawing his slender phone and flicking it open with one hand, hitting what he hoped where the right keys.

The hand tightened and the air was gone and Danny was terrified, he was managing to think but he was terrified. The attacker was over him, not close enough to touch but their presence was something Danny could feel in a way totally unrelated to touch, the attacker so close that Danny could almost feel the air disturbance in place of the body.

Danny pushed more keys on his phone and thought he heard the clicking sound and began to press more keys desperately.

He hit send as something about the presence above him shifted and he saw the faintest glimmer of something moving through the air.

His mind provided the word 'knife' and the response was automatic.

Danny dropped his phone and brought both hands up, using what little strength he had in them to grab at the arm. He couldn't take out the elbow by force, he was too oxygen starved, but he jabbed a finger in at a spot just below the elbow, a nerve cluster there and the attacker recoiled sharply, the presence above Danny vanishing backwards along with the hand on his mouth and the glimmer of a knife in the air.

Danny dragged in a breath even as his ribs shrieked out in agony so bad he felt himself grow dizzy but he pushed himself over onto his front and managed to scramble forwards, snatching at a broken bottle he could see as he managed to get into the pool of light, cross it and stagger out of the alley way, into the street.

He dropped to his knees just outside the alley, holding the bottle ready to slash any one who might come rushing out.

No one followed him and he forced himself to crawl painfully out into the middle of the road, sitting down in the middle of a lane.

He was out in the open, in the rain. He could feel aches, bruises, cuts, everywhere. Breathing hurt. Sitting in the rain hurt his head, the feel of the drops seeming to Danny like the constant kicks of a small but determined jack boot.

He looked around him, recognising where he was, how he had gotten there from his house. A boom of thunder crashed almost directly over head and the rain began to fall harder and Danny sat alone, waiting.


	5. Hopeless

Chapter 5, er, yeah, it's more of the same really, slightly less action this time around, but angst and some moments i really liked and smiled writing, er. Yeah. OC's are mine, everything else is CBS.

Hmm. just a note, as i post this my clock reads 07:14 am...i havent been to bed yet. Just incase any one was wondering if i really am an insomniac.

Please Review, my reviewrs are amazing, love you all.xxxxx

* * *

Mac was biting his lip as he pulled the jeep over the curb and climbed , barely remembering to grab his kit as he saw the ambulances, the other patrol cars.

There was a black muscle car parked haphazardly across the pavement, and Max spotted Nox directing uniforms around the mouth of the narrow alley way, keeping them from going in.

"Mac, come'ere" Nox waved him over "I kept everybody out of the alley for you Mac, I know with the rain there isn't gonna be a lot for you to find but-" he trailed off, shrugging slightly.

His black hair was curling slightly against his head and Mac noted he seemed to be dressed in sweat pants, basket ball shoes and a battered jacket over a t-shirt.

"You get pulled outta bed?" Mac remarked.

"Didn't you?" Nox asked, looking down at the similar out fit Mac was wearing.

"What happened?" Mac frowned as Nox began leading him through the rain.

"Dispatch got a call, no one on the other end but dispatcher could hear some unusual noises on the other end of the line, thought maybe a fight, managed to trace the phones location before it died on her, ambulance and patrol get here to find our boy sitting, bloody and beaten, in the middle of the street. He said there are people in one of the buildings in there, who may be linked to Chelsea Harper's killer, and possibly to his attacker, so I sent a couple uniforms around to the front to find a way in without disturbing the alley way too much" Nox pulled up short "He's over there, I oughta warn you Mac, cos he's one of yours, he's pretty beat up, he'll live, but he got hurt" Nox gave him a grim frown.

The came around the back of the ambulance. The paramedics had moved inside the rig its self to escape the rain and Mac had to climb up into the back to see his CSI.

Danny was sitting on the stretcher, stripped down to his tracksuit bottoms. His ribs, which had held a sliding but small bruise earlier, where purple and black reaching across his whole chest, radiating out from that one original injury. There was blood on his head, from the first cut and a few new ones, staining his hair and skin. He had blood around his nose and mouth, a bruise dancing around the side of his right eye, and a bruise over his mouth Mac could almost see getting darker. His glasses seemed to be missing.

One of his hands was bloody and the medic appeared to be picking out small shards of glass with a pair of tweezers.

"He had a broken glass bottle in his hand when they found him" Nox explained.

"It was self defence" Danny said hoarsely, glancing at Mac "Hey, I uh…sorry" he said, wincing as the medic pulled another shard of glass.

"You want to tell me what happened?" Mac asked, sitting down on the stretcher across from Danny's.

Danny, uniquely vocal for once gave a one shouldered shrug without thinking and hissed between his teeth "I saw her again, that kid Pixie…stopped her, talked to her…she brought me here" h while the medic continued to work on his hand, Danny relayed what Pixie had told him, what he had learned about Docto Guide.

"You get a bad vibe off him?" Nox asked from the door way, seeming non plussed about the rain falling on him.

"Oh yeah" Danny gave a small nod "He was…nice and polite and all but…he wasn't a good guy" he stated.

"what about the girl?" Nox asked.

"She seemed okay…loved the fact that I don't know too much about her but I didn't feel like she was…tryna set me up or anything" Danny was staring at the bloodied palm of his hand.

He was acting like he was fine, but Mac knew him, knew how freaked out he was. He could see it in the set to Danny's shoulder, the tightness along his jaw, the tension running through him.

"What happened when you got into the alley?" Mac asked quietly.

Danny glanced at him and took a breath, finally seeming unsettled "I didn't see him…I was walking through the alley, you see how dark it is in there? It's weird…well, I'm just getting to the light from the street lamp and he hits me in my side, right on where I already got hurt right? So I freeze, he knocks me down, starts whaling on me…I go for the mouth of the alley again and he gets his hand over…over my mouth…he was uh….he was smothering me and…I was tryna get to my phone and I saw a knife, or I think a I saw a knife…I jabbed him in his arm, you know right here?" Danny pointed at the area of his arm where the nerve cluster would be "He got off me, I got out to the street…he didn't follow…he let me breathe for a second, like Hammerback was sayin, he let me breathe, started smothering me again…same MO, it was our killer" he croaked, his voice sounding painfully rough.

Nox gave a cough and excused himself, the medic taking the same cue and climbing out of the rig after having wrapped Danny's hand in a bandage, muttering something about needing to make a call.

Mac watched them go and moved along the stretcher so he sat directly opposite Danny who was biting his lip, staring at the floor.

"You okay?" Mac asked quietly.

"I'm fine" Danny muttered.

"Right. What where you even doing awake this time of the morning Danny? Have you been sleeping at all?" Mac asked.

"I cant" Danny said very quietly as it pained him to admit it "I try. But I cant"

"Why not?" Mac found himself feeling guilty all of a sudden, wishing and not for the first time that he could find some way to help the kid.

"I don't know" Danny's voice cracked and became a whisper as Danny glanced up with wide, shiny eyes, unshed tears making him look impossibly young "I want sleep, I'm tired. I just…I cant switch it off, my mind wont shut up" he seemed almost desperate.

"Do you take anything?" Mac asked gently.

"I don't like to tempt fate" Danny gave a grim smirk "With my luck I'd OD by accident"

"Herbal remedies, teas, less caffeine?" Mac suggested.

"Mac I don't drink coffee, I don't _talk _you know that" he gave the smallest smirk but it was tainted with sadness "…I tried some of them relaxing teas but nothing works. It's not that my body isn't tired, it's…I don't know…" he glanced away and Mac silently cursed as he actually saw Danny reign himself in, begin to put his walls back in place "I'll be fine" he stated and Mac sighed.

"Danny if you need to talk to the department shrink, no one will think badly of you" Mac told him.

"No" Danny said in a tone that seemed to signal the end of the conversation.

The medic chose that moment to climb back into the rig "I talked to a doc at the ER…she says it's up to you if you want to go in, you're hurt enough that I think you should get checked out but you're coherent and not in any obvious distress" the young man shrugged.

"You're going, I want those ribs x-rayed, Stella'll be over to process you" Mac stated "No arguments"

Danny have him an angry look but didn't protest as Mac climbed out of the rig and walked toward the alley way, hearing the ambulance take off behind him.

"It really is…weirdly dark in their Mac" Nox told him, "I put in a call for some flood lights, they're en route"

"Thanks" Mac pulled a torch from his pocket, flicking the beam to it's highest setting.

He walked into the alley way carefully, aiming the torch low to the ground. The rain had soaked most of the floor, washing away any evidence that there may have been. He spotted Danny's broken glasses, wincing at the sight of them. Danny hadn't seemed to notice they'd been knocked loose. There where puddles of rain scattered around, covering the floor in some places in two or three inch deep pools of water.

Mac edged forward, his torch light reflecting off the glossy cover of Danny's cell phone.

Mac picked it up from the puddle it had been dropped in, tilting it to see if it was still working.

The screen was frozen on the 911 call Danny had made, and a light on the back indicated the camera attachment was still on.

"Wait," Mac muttered "Nox did Danny mention taking any pictures on this phone?" he called back to the detective.

"Not that I heard" Nox replied "Why?" he asked.

"His camera phone is switched on…he might have gotten a picture of his attacker" Mac bagged the phone, making a note to have the pictures extracted as soon as was possible.

He picked up Danny's glasses, bagging them as well, shining the torch around. There where boxes, milk cartons, broken bottles, garbage bags, scattered around in what looked like a random fashion but which Mac knew where intentionally placed, to deter people from venturing further into the alley way, to find the back door to the theatre.

"See much?" Nox asked.

Mac sighed "There's hardly anything to get, any trace is long gone, this weather better clear up soon or every defense attorney in New York's gonna have a good chance at taking our cases apart in the court room"

"Oh, Mac, come here" Nox called.

Mac cast a last look around, shaking his head and walking out of the alley way.

A group on uniforms where herding a bedraggled group, the Liberi Noctus, toward the alley way.

"What is going on here!" a blonde, curly haired woman snapped as Mac and Nox approached.

"A man was attacked and beaten in this alley way" Mac told her "Not to mention the fact that seven people linked with your little group here? Have been murdered over the past eighteen months"

"No, they haven't, people leave…what are you talking about?" the girl asked.

"You got a name?" Nox asked her.

"Claudia" she purred, switching from bitch to flirt as she dropped back into her 'vampire' role.

"Right, well 'Claudia' who owns the building?" Nox asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do" she stated "So we're not trespassing" she seemed smug.

"Damn…you're right. Mac we cant arrest them for trespassing" Nox glanced at the older man.

"That's lucky for them" Mad admitted.

Nox nodded "It is, that's really all we could have gotten them on. Oh" Nox pulled an overdramatically shocked face "No, wait, officer bennet over here? He just handed me this" Nox held up a baggie of weed "Oh no…drugs" he shrugged "Mac, we cant arrest them for trespassing but we can get em on drugs" he smiled brightly.

"I can live with that" Mac smirked as Claudia's smug grin dropped from her face.

"That isn't mine" she rolled her eyes.

"Sweetie, I took it outta ya hand" a burly officer standing beside Nox told her.

Nox chuckled "Alright" he handed the bag to Mac "A man was at your little meeting just before, turned up with your friend Pixie"

"Danny?" Claudia asked "He talked to Doctor Guide I think…what about him?"

"He was attacked when he was leaving, right in the alley way there" Nox pointed "You all didn't here anything?" he asked the assembled group who where, in some cases, being rudely awoken by the weather, the cops.

"it's a theatre. It's basically soundproof in there" Claudia said sullenly, "that's why we chose it"

"You have to be kidding?" Nox growled.

"Go in there and get some one to yell for you or something" Claudia raised an eye brow.

"Hm" Nox frowned at her, turning from her to Ben Marr. "Ben" he said it in a _tone_ and the bulky man began to curse.

"Dude…I couldn't tell you about a meeting, I couldn't betray my friends" he whined.

"Did you even tell them they may be at risk?" Mac asked.

"I don't think they are" Ben sniffed.

Mac pressed his lips together "Well then in that case, line up ladies and gentlemen and start listening" Mac raised his voice as the gathered insomniacs shuffled to attention "We have reason to believe you are being targeted by a serial killer" he started, hoping that the kids where not too stoned to remember his warnings.

* * *

Stella knocked on the door to the room, walking in slowly as Danny turned his head ever so slightly in her direction. 

"Hey Stel" Don Flack called croakily from his bed "I'm outta the game for a few months and you let Danny get his ass kicked?"

Stella couldn't help but smile at the sight of Don, even though he lay, pale and drawn in a hospital bed, hooked up to more machines than Stella could count.

"Hey he picks the fights!" Stella shot back as she came to stand behind Danny "He also wanders off from his room" she said pointedly.

Danny, wearing hospital scrubs, gave a small shrug "They did all their X-rays" he stated "I was sitting there in that room getting bored"

"So he went to Louie's room but they where doing some test, so left with no where else to go, he relented and came to see me" Flack grinned.

"Well it was you or the old folks and they're all asleep" Danny smirked.

"I love how I was your second choice man, that's special, that touches me here" Flack placed his hand over his heart as he chuckled.

"Second choice my ass, I was _forced_ up here, the nurses said you where getting handsy, I'm supposed to tell you 'no means no'" Danny joked.

"How's Louie doing?" Stella took the other seat by Flack's bed, placing her heavy kit down for the time being.

"Same" Danny muttered "Flack here though, Flack's got half the nurses set up for dates after he goes out"

"Hound dog" Stella grinned.

"I'm not kidding!" Danny told her "hand to god, he's got…Sheryl set for a Monday, a Mira for the Tuesday, Lorraine for Wednesday…uh, what was her name?"

"Katherine" Flack provided.

"Katherine for Thursday, Tia for Friday and Saturday, he's got the whole day so there's at least four of them!" Danny was grinning his Cheshire cat grin and Stella couldn't resist the urge to match it, as it was Pure Danny.

"Mac sent me to process you" Stella told him.

He sighed over dramatically but nodded "Fine, what do ya want?" he asked.

"Fingernails, hair, uh, where's your clothes?" she asked.

Danny pulled a plastic bag out from under his seat, passing it to Stella, "I know the chances of me getting those back are slim but…try not to wreck em up to much" he smiled.

"I need to get pictures of you too" Stella told him.

"Any excuse!" Danny smirked at Flack.

"You call me a hound" Flack chuckled at her.

"Why are you even awake, it's five am" Stella frowned at him.

"There's a nurse, called Delia, who comes on at five" Danny smiled "Always comes in to check on the patients on the ward, including Donny boy, Don, _always_, makes sure he's awake to say hi"

"How do you know?" Stella grinned as she began to unpack her camera.

"Danny comes in here early in the morning sometimes" Flack said "he claims he gets up early any way" he said doubtfully.

"Well I'm _awake_ early" Danny corrected.

"Off with the shirt" Stella told him.

"See, cant get enough of me" Danny told Flack.

"Take it off Messer, let me see what you got" Flack raised an eyebrow at him.

"You are such a weirdo" Danny shook his head, standing painfully and raising his arms to pull she scrubs top over his head.

He froze with his arms half way up, his lips pressed together hard enough that they where going white under the bruise around his mouth.

"Danny?" Stella asked, concerned.

"Uh…I cant quite lift my arms that high" Danny said, his voice laced with pain "Could you…Stel could you help me out" his voice cracked on the last and there where tears of pain in his eyes that Stella and Flack politely ignored.

Stella stepped forward as Danny lowered his arm. She gripped the billowing edge of the sleeve, pulling it forward as Danny pulled his arm backwards, through the sleeve.

"How'd you take the other one off?" Stella asked.

"They cut it" Danny said painfully, "I'm just glad it wasn't like…one I cared about, it was just some plain white tee"

"They had to cut off your shirt?" Stella asked as she pulled the sleeve down over his arm, lifting it over his shoulder as he ducked his head automatically for her to lift the collar "And you're worried about what I might do to it?"

"I can sew it back together if it's just cut" Danny raised his other arm enough for Stella to pull his other sleeve down until he stood naked from the waist up, aside from that chain.

"You're a natural at being undressed by a woman?" Flack smirked.

"My mom used the exact same method to undress me if I got in a fight as a kid" Danny gave him a tight lipped smile "she'd do that, thow the clothes in the wash and me in the bath, then it was straight to bed"

"Damn Danny" Flack said gently, observing the bruises on Danny's chest. He paused, taking in Danny's skinnier frame too "You see this, I'm gone for a month or so and Danny goes anorexic and gets beat up, I mean I'm glad you finally started caring about how you look but really, the lollipop head isn't you, and what happened you forget how to fight?" Flack made a joke of it but there was an undercurrent of concern in his words.

"I just want to be pretty for when you get out" Danny joked "And for your big fat information, I was grabbed from behind in a very dark alley way" he said the last quietly, trying to play it down.

Stella raised the camera, taking the photos as quickly as she could, knowing how it felt to be on the wrong end of this process. Danny joked with Flack through out but Stella could see the flinch in his eyes every time the camera clicked, a flinch that had nothing to do with the bright flash. She focused in on a few bruises that where more distinct than others, looking like boot prints.

There where a few actual cuts on his skin, which Stella took a few images of before setting the camera down. "Just let me swab those cuts and then you can put your shirt back on, although you are _loving_ the attention" Stella raised an eye brow at him.

"What can I say, I'm hot" Danny smirked.

Stella retrieved her swabs and wiped at the wounds, rolling her eyes as Danny winced and protested petulantly. "Quit bein such a wuss" she snickered.

"They hurt Stella" Danny snapped, but it was good natured.

"Hey, I know, remember?" Stella grinned up at him.

"Yeah, open wounds can sting" Flack smirked.

"You don't get to play" Danny pointed at him with a grin "You got an unfair advantage"

Stella swapped the rest of the small cuts and grazes, making the effort to be gentle even though she joked with Danny and Flack about Danny's pain threshold.

She finished and help Danny put the shirt back on, going the easier route by having him hold both arms out in front of him like a zombie and running the sleeves over his arms, then simply lifting the collar over his head and settling the shirt for him.

He sat back down and she slid her chair forward, holding his hands steady while she scraped under his nails, combed through his hair for any trace evidence there might be.

She bagged what she got, not much, and put it all together in her case, sitting back in the seat, regarding the battered pair.

"Look at you two" she shook her head "Hopeless" she threw up her hands.

"You gonna let her talk to us like that? Go on Flack, get her" Danny grinned.

"You get her" Flack moved in the bed "I'm all hurt and weak"

"You're a male whore is what you are" Danny shot his friend a look "You better share the love around, give out my number"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Flack yawned.

"You want to go back to sleep?" Danny asked.

"I might" Flack yawned again "Nothing good happens here till ten anyway, that's when Julie, the nurse with very small personal boundaries comes around" he gave a devilish grin.

Stella smirked "Danny where you told you could leave?"

"Yeah, they gave me some pill pains, I got cracked ribs but nothing serious and I can come back to work" Danny nodded and once again, Stella was struck by how he seemed to be his old self.

She could tell it wasn't just for being _around _Flack, it was common knowledge that Danny visited his brother and Flack almost every day, or was more like being around some one who he could just talk to, just joke around with, some one he knew cared about him but wouldn't pester him with questions about how he was, would know what he was going to talk about and what he wasn't. FLack could make a joke about Danny's condition, make light of it in a way that showed his concern, but didn't make Danny feel like he was being scrutinised. It was some thing he'd always been able to do for his friend.

"You need a ride home?" Stella asked him.

"Yeah alright" Danny pushed himself up out of his seat, picking up a smaller bag which held his keys, his wallet and badge, tapping Flack's leg "I'll see ya man, I'm tapin the Yankees game for you, I'll bring it over in a couple days" he told the detective.

"Bring some popcorn this time, or at least like, some cracker jack, make it like a real ball game man, set the mood" Flack told him.

"You're such a geek" Danny smirked as Stella leaned over and gave Flack a quick peck on the cheek as a good bye.

"Yeah says the _science nerd_" Flack said pointedly.

"What ever, I still kick your ass at hand ball" Danny said and bounced out of the room.

"Talk to you soon" Stella grinned, hefting her kit, the bag of Danny's clothes.

"Take care Stel" Flack called as Stella pulled his door shut behind her.

Danny had walked down the corridor and was rounding a corner as Stella followed him.  
She found him in Louie's room, standing at the end of his brothers bed, chewing his thumb nail.

He was staring at Louie's still form, his eyes wide, his expression almost nervous. Wearing the over sized hospital scrubs, he looked impossibly young.

Stella waited patiently while Danny walked to the head of the bed, running a hand through his brothers hair gently.

"I'll come by and we can catch up better in a couple days, but uh, I got a case going right now, it's a doozy though, I'll tell you about it. And mom said to tell you that Cookie Fustanzi, you took her to prom? She's getting married" Danny gave his brother a smile "Mull over that till I come back okay? Love ya bro" he squeezed Louie's hand once and Stella stepped away from the door way, letting Danny emerge from the room, pretending like she hadn't seen the intimate moment.

He gave her a small smile as they walked down the corridor, taking the kit from her hands almost automatically "You're drivin me home it's the least I can do" he said to her questioning look, carrying the case even though it had to cause him pain.

"How _is_ he doing?" Stella glanced back at Louie's room.

"Like I said, the same" Danny said, clearly avoiding the question "He just lays there"

Stella sensed that he wouldn't say any more on the subject. "Flack's lookin better" she noted.

"Yeah, yeah he has good days and bad" Danny said.

There was a long moment while they waited for the elevator, the unusual tension hovering in the air.

"Danny" Stella said.

"Don't" Danny cut her off "I'm fine, I got beat up, I'm okay, I'm not wiggin out over it…I appreciate the concern though" he told her.

"We just want you to know you can talk to us" Stella told him as they stepped into the elevator and Danny hit the button for the ground floor.

"Stella I'm not gonna bother you and Mac with my minor foibles when you two both got your own shit going on!" Danny told her "I mean, how are you, how are you doing over…over Frankie?" Danny asked her.

"I'm fine. But I actually am _fine_" Stella said pointedly has he gave her a doubtful look "I talked to the shrink, I hung out with some friends, I mean I still have night mares every now and then but I'm making my peace with what happened, I'm putting it behind me" she shook her head "You cant do that" She told him gently.

"What do you mean?" Danny frowned.

"I don't mean it as a slight to you, I mean…you cant move past what happened to Louie, what happened to Flack, shit, what happened to Aidan and _don't_ try and deny it, I know you visit her grave every week…you cant move past them because they're…you see Louie and Flack in the hospital every day Danny. It's sweet that you care so much but it's not healthy" Stella said "To get over bad things happening, you need to distance your self from them. Flack would understand if you didn't stop by for a few days" she shrugged and it wasn't until she saw him look up slowly that she realised her slip.

"What about Louie?" he asked her quietly "Would he be okay, or would he just…not notice?"

"Danny, you know I didn't mean it like that" Stella stated

"I know" Danny nodded "But you're right" he said softly.

"What do you mean?" Stella asked gently.

"Stella, I'm his _brother_, they tell me this stuff first" he pointed out "They keep saying that the longer he goes showing no signs of improving…" he cut himself off, his frown deepening "I know he's probably not gonna wake up Stel…I just…well come on, it's not an easy thing to be aware of _all the time_" he glanced at her "And every time some one asks, in tone 'hey, how are you, hows your brother' all Icanever thinkto say is 'he's gonna die actually, how the hell are you?'" he shook his head "Just let me deal with it my own way" he told her, but there was a lilt in how he spoke that made it a request.

Stella nodded "I understand" she told him "Just…"

"Yeah, know you're all there" Danny gave her a grim smirk.

The elevator reached the ground floor and Stella and Danny walked to her car.

She navigated the streets quickly, easily, making idle chatter about the early morning radio shows, the horrible weather, until finally she came to Danny's building.

"You need me to come up with you?" She asked him.

"You'd compromise the chain of evidence" he pointed out.

Stella smiled "Do you _ever_ switch off?" she asked.

"Nope" he told her, the word carrying much more meaning than it ordinarily would have.

"Well Mac said to take the day" Stella told him.

"Well Mac can prepare to be shocked, I'll be in in a couple hours" Danny replied.

"I don't think he was suggesting" Stella stated.

"Good for him, I'll see you" Danny climbed out of the car before Stella could protest and all though his injuries slowed him down, there was no point in her chasing him.

He would come into work regardless, even though he would probably ordered to sit quietly in a seat or go sleep on the sofa, he would be at work.

Stella drove away, leaving Danny to make his way to his apartment, his body aching with literally every step he took.

By the time he reached his floor, stepping off the elevator, he was _gasping_ in pain, which just made it worse as his lungs over inflated to draw in more air.

He let himself in, automatically opening a window over the sink almost as soon as he walked into the kitchen, hearing the sounds of the rain and waking city fill his apartment.

A blur moved past him as the cats went out of the window, off to hunt rats, and Danny pushed the button on his answering service as the lit number informed him he had a message.

"Danny, I called your cell but your voice mail gave me this number….he cheated, I followed him to a car, got the make and model and most of the plate…" Pixie's voice came over the speakers as she recited the information "I didn't see where he went though…I'll talk to you later…if you need to talk to me, call me at this number…I don't always pick up but, its something" she recited the number "Oh, I just remembered, I left you alone in that alley way…sorry if you shinned yourself on a box or something" she hung up.

Danny got a pen and paper and played the message again, writing down what she had told him.

He set the note pad down as the phone rang, the shrill, sharp sound making him jump, sending spikes of pain radiating through him.

He grabbed the phone, hitting the button.

"Yeah" he hissed, clenching his teeth.

"Danny, I hate to do this but…can you come in today?" Mac asked.

"I was gonna any way Mac, what's wrong?" Danny told him.

"Dispatch got a call, Caucasian male, early twenties, probably hasnt been dead more than an hour…he's escalating Danny, it's the same MO as Chelsea and the other victims. The son of a bitch killed another one"


	6. Falling

Chapter 6!We learn more about Nox, get closer to a suspect and there's some drama at the end (GASP)

Sorry this took a few days, first i had horrible cursed writers block, THEN, i learned how to use movie maker so ended up doing that, i made a bunch, its great, its like fanfic with PICTURES!I dont want to shamelessly plug my own vids but if you do wanna see em message me and i'll let you know where to go!

Disclaimers are the same, i own my OC's not the CBS originals. I just want toclarify, not that anyone has but incase some one might think im being insulting, in ANY of my stories if i seem to be presenting s view that seems racist or sexist or what ever, or if it seems like im insulting certain types of people, just know that i'm not, its a narrative tool ora character thing. ).

Love ALL my reviewers, you guys are amazing (Hugs and Kisses all of you) erm, i very much doubt there ARE any sp and grammar errors but if there are, please forgive me, its half five in the morning, i've been up close to thirty hours, i have to be up at ten, im too gone to proof read. But, read the last section and keep in mind i wrote that at the end of this thirty hour spin and see if that makes a difference. Oh and i've never used anyting chemical to stay awake, its all natural for me.

Love. Pie.

xxx

* * *

"Luke Hardman was twenty two, had ID in his pocket from NYU, where he's a Bio major" Nox told Danny who was standing a few feet from the body.

Mac was crouched beside the young mans corpse. The body had been lain on his back, beneath a tree, sheltered by the leaves. He was dressed in a plain, tight black t-shirt, leather pants and boots. He was almost curled into the crook made by the roots of the tree, looking for all the world like a student who had dozed off studying. Except that his skin was ghostly pale, it was pouring with rain, and he would have had to have been studying at five or six am.

The bruise over his mouth was already starting to show as Mac worked as quickly as he as able, gathering what evidence he could before the rain washed it all away.

Danny had the same bruise over his own mouth, something more than a few people, uniforms, had noticed, but had not commented on.

When a cop got hurt, word got around quickly.

"The tree, the cover provided by the branches…ought to have saved some trace" Danny stated. He was too beat up to be of any real help, unable to bend, so he stood to the side while mac worked.

"You know what?" Nox frowned "Chelsea was found in a green house…this kid is under a tree…Chelsea looked like she had fallen asleep, this kid looks like he's just nodded off, the positioning of the body I mean…what are we willing to bet the other vics will have been positioned to look like they're asleep, in a place that provides some kind of protection?" he asked "Could he think…"

"He's helping them" Danny interrupted "Earlier, Guide, he was saying that all he wanted to do was _help_"

"Huh" Nox nodded "He's not even _tryin_ not to be a suspect"

"He must have done this after the attack on you…since he's calling himself a doctor we can assume he had a 'patient'" Mac mused.

"When he rushed to leave I assumed it was because Pixie and me where pissing him off" Danny said grimly "I didn't even consider he might be going to hurt some one"

"You had no reason to. The guy is creepy and weird but you had no actual evidence to point to him being the guy, plus the fact that up until this new vic, the killer has always waited up to ten weeks between killing" Mac told him.

"I know" Danny muttered but he didn't seem convinced.

Mac nodded slowly, understanding why Danny felt guilty, knowing that there wasn't a lot to be done about it. Danny _did_ know there was nothing he could have done, but he was cop at heart and more often than not the instinct to protect overruled common sense, making him feel guilty for things he couldn't have helped.

"Coulda been me" Danny said quietly "Probably why he killed this kid, he was pissed at not being able to get me"

"Don't get egotistical" Nox stated, and some how it struck the right cord and Danny gave a small smirk.

"I cant help if I'm special" he shot back.

"What I still cant figure is how he's doin this without them seeming to fight back, I mean, you're walking proof somebody can fight him off, he's a strong guy but he _can_ be fought off" Nox shook his head "This kid's bigger than you Messer, he's got height and weight on you, _and_ you where hurt, but this kid dies and you get away…he's gotta be doing something"

"Well we'll get back to Hammerback, see what he's heard" Mac shrugged "For now we need to follow up what Pixie told you Danny, see if we can find the car"

"I'd like to try and bring her in Mac…he's really intent on 'treating' her, I think she could be in danger" Danny told him "Plus she can tell us if this kid went to the Lib Noc meetings"

Mac nodded "I agree, but considering how…cut off she is, how hard to find, I want you to work the car while you try to track her down"

* * *

Danny was sitting cross legged on the chair in front of the computer, a barely touched sandwich sitting by his arm. He was chewing something, a piece of paper Nox thought, and idly tapping at the key board.

Nox set a coffee mug down beside the plate, lowering himself into the empty seat next to Danny's.

"That number is taking a while to run" he said, sipping his own coffee, "What are you doin?"

"I input the make and model Pixie gave me, and the segment of the registration, this search programme runs through every car registered in the city that might match the information, it might not give us one single car but it'll give us some where to start" Danny explained.

"How long's it gonna take?" Nox asked.

"Depends I guess" Danny shrugged, leaning back in his chair. He reached for the coffee "Thanks" he muttered, taking a sip.

"So, Stella said you two where talking to your buddy Flack? How's he doin?" Nox asked conversationally.

Danny shrugged "He's getting better, slowly but surely"

"That's good" Nox nodded "He's a damn good cop"

Danny gave a nod "When he first woke up he was so _pissed_ he was gonna miss out on basically the whole summer getting better" he smirked "Guy can't even be hurt right"

Nox grinned "Some people don't get…hung up on what happened…they deal with it by making their feelin's about something else" He was clearly talking about himself in his comment, whether he had meant to or not.

Danny looked over at him. Nox was sitting on the wrong side for Danny to see the scar, but he knew it was there.

"So what happened with that?" he asked quietly "I mean if you don't want to tell me I wont…" He shrugged.

Nox reached over and picked up one of the uneaten halves of Danny's sandwich, taking a bite "Uh, my partner and I, Ray Ray, we where investigatin' this case…it was some thing a little like this, a serial killer, except he picked on kids, little boys and girls and he would…he didn't…diddle em" Nox wrinkled his nose as if he was uncomfortable "he would cut em up, take parts of their bones, make…he'd make little statues…he carved their bones into figures of each kid…" he paused as if unable to comprehend the idea "We didn't figure that out till after, what he was doing with the bones, just that he took em…he…had a pattern for picking his victims, something to do with them being Catholic, cos he was a Satanist, and their schools and…we figured it out, some geek figured it out for us, told us where he was likely to hit next and we went there and he was dragging this little girl, Ellie Sanders, into a car and she was _fightin_, I mean really kickin up a fuss and we grabbed her and tussled with him but he drove away and we lost him, saved her…but we got his address from his plates right? So we go over there and he's not around but fuck…that apartment was a room out of hell. I swear to god, it was another world in there…he'd cut em up in his bathroom, he'd soundproofed it, you believe that?" he frowned "So we're all sorta stumped for where he could be and the captain sends us home and we're all figurin, at the very least we have his apartment, his shit he uses to hurt em…he's not likely to make another attempt so we just have to track him down and Cap wants us awake to do that, fresh, alert" he took another bite of the sandwich.

His tone was casual, as if to him, it wasn't anything to be too emotional about, but the anger was there, under his words, tinged with just a little fear.

Nox swallowed the bite and continued "So I get home, I got arms full of groceries, my head is…I don't even know where, gone, and I walk in my door, in my _house_ and some one grabs me from behind, arm around my neck takes my gun away real quick…and naturally, it's our guy, name was Ed, and he…he was skinny as a rail, didn't look that strong but he was, and he's kinda…pacing around, pulling me with him and he's goin on about how I'm a catholic and I stopped him getting Ellie Sanders so now I gotta stand in, and I'm thinkin, I have a knife in my pocket, I'm just gonna grab it…and then he leans in real close and he says to me 'your partner has two little girls, if you scream, I go to their house next'" he paused "And he was right, about Ray Ray's kid's. We never figured how he knew that, or how he found me...But, anyway...He like, pushed me forward, so he's got me at arms length and I have my hands on the table in my kitchen. Then he starts cutting my back…and it _hurt_, I'm struggling and I'm really having a hard time not screaming, a really hard time…but I keep thinking, once he's done on my back he'll have to shift his weight cos he's gonna want my…my bones…and when he does I'm gonna use the chance to turn around and stab him in his fuckin heart" his accent made the word come out 'haht' "But I say 'thinking', at this point my heads a little messed up, so, he's at the top of my back, and I'm 'thinking', any minute now he'll move…but he just keeps on going…he slides the blade toward my throat and that's just about when instinct overruled Ray Ray's kids, I hate to say…I freaked, I jerked forward, and the knife slid back" Nox was touching the scar, tracing it's path on his skin "And I get my knife and I manage to get him in the arm and he just…runs…he runs outta the place and I'm bleeding fuckin _everywhere_ and…I don't want this to sound like I was being a hero cos I wasn't" he said quietly "I get my cell, and at this point I'm layin on the floor, just, a mess, and I call Ray Ray cos he's on my speed dial and in my head, I'm not thinking clearly at all so I manage to coherently say 'get the kids outta the house' but not…not in the way people kept thinking" he seemed angry.

"How do you mean?" Danny asked quietly.

"People went on for months after about how I was this hero cos I called and warned Ray Ray before I asked for help, but it wasn't like that…I was just so high off the blood loss that all that was in my head was to tell Ray Ray the girls where in trouble, I couldn't even fuckin remember I was hurt, I mean, as soon as he asked if everythin was okay, _then_ I freaked out, but…I'm not a hero" Nox gave a shrug.

"What happened to Ed?" Danny asked.

"Honestly? We don't know. We never actually found him" Nox stated.

"Fuck. So how badly messed up where you?" Danny asked.

"I lost, well obviously, I lost serious amounts of blood…had to have surgery, they where worried I was paralysed…there was kinda, a few months that where just a haze cos I was all drugged up, all I remember is I had to lay on my stomach all the time" Nox shook his head again.

"Damn man" Danny said with feeling.

Nox smirked "Ah what ever, every cops got stories right?" he asked "I mean what's behind that?" he pointed to Danny's right wrist.

Danny frowned and looked down at his arm. Just beneath his thumb, running in a straight, neat line for about four inches, there was the faintest white scar, the smaller marks from the stitches giving it the distinctive look of something that had been treated.

"Look at that" Danny muttered, "Normally you cant see it" he frowned.

"What's it from?" Nox asked as the computer beeped softly.

Danny hit a few keys and the computer resumed it's search.

"I was gonna be a ball player, I broke my wrist" He explained "That's the scar from where they had to operate"

"How'd you break it?" Nox asked.

"I got in a fight" Danny shrugged.

Nox stared at him, waiting. "And" he prompted.

"And my wrist got broke" Danny said bluntly.

"What like, it just snapped?" Nox pushed.

"No…the guys I was fightin held me down and broke it" Danny said.

"You press charges!" Nox asked him, shocked.

"No, I didn't…not against them" Danny seemed almost, almost, afraid.

"Against who?" Nox asked.

Danny ignored him and leaned toward the computer, typing on the key board "Got a list of likely addresses, narrowed it down to eight from a potential bazillion" he nodded.

He hit a button and the list of addresses began to print off across the room.

"Lemme get a look at that number?" he asked.

Nox directed him to a computer on the other side of the room.

Danny frowned at the screen for a second before typing something quickly.

"You're like 'Mr computers' huh?" Nox smirked.

"Yeah well don't tell any of the techie guys I just did that, technically it's an illegal code but it should speed up the program finding her number" Danny told him.

Nox smirked, the odd tension that had arisen from their conversation dissipating quickly.

"Here we go…" Danny hit a few more keys and once again, the printer hummed to life.

Danny walked over to it, picking up the printed sheets "We might as well start tracking these down, Mac and Stella are workin the stuff they got off've Luke"

"You want to find Pixie first, or follow the cars?" Nox asked.

Danny frowned. In the bright light of the lab, the bruises on his face looked especially harsh, his skin seeming unnaturally pale, the bruises looking ugly and painful. The cut over his ear was clean but nasty looking, the butterfly stitches long gone. He looked exactly like some one who had taken a beating.

"I don't know…I mean we need to find her, but, we need to find him just as much" Danny mused.

"We could split up? You take a uniform and go find her, I'll take a couple guys and check out these addresses" Nox suggested.

"Sounds like it could work" Danny agreed.

He handed Nox the list "Remember though, this guys big, and he's dangerous and he's fast" Danny said "Be ready"

* * *

Nox sighed as he hammered on the door. He had rounded up 2 pairs of uniformed officers, given them photo-fits Danny had provided of 'Doctor Guide' and given them addresses each to check, leaving the last four for himself. Mac and Stella had agreed that it would be best for Danny to go more or less alone to get Pixie, as it was possible she would simply cut and run at the sight of cops.

The pictures from Danny's cell phone where still being analysed, but the tech who handled it had told them it wouldn't be much longer, and was confident the picture would be a pretty clear image of Danny's attacker. When Nox and Danny had left the lab, Stella and Mac where looking at something taken from inside a fold of Luke, the latest victims clothes, something that seemed to have been accidentally there and kept dry by how Luke had been positioned. Stella had recognised it as more of the odd, dissolving leaf Danny had found so she and Mac where discussing ways to analyse it. Danny had left with a single plain clothes officer in tow, there to be back up in case Danny needed it. Nox had headed off with his addresses. So far, he was 0 for 2, and this was his third and the guy was taking his damn time answering the door.

The first guy Nox had seen had been a woman, an old one, who lived in a huge old town house that looked as if it cost alotmore than Nox made in a year.

The woman, once Nox had gotten past her butler had been visibly distressed by Nox's strong accent, wincing every time he said 'car' or some similar word.

Nox had noticed the butler rolling his eyes at her behaviour and had been delighted when, as the man was showing Nox out, the guy had muttered under his breath "Don't take it personally, she's a die hard Yankees fan" with out a trace of irony.

Nox had laughed his way back to his car, and most of the way over to the second address, a Tony Wang, who as it turned out, was not a serial killer but was an member of a Chinese Street gang and hadn't taken kindly to Nox knocking on his door flashing his badge.

Nox had ducked the wildly thrown punch that had been his greeting when he knocked on Tony's door, given the kid a bloody nose of his own and crossed him off the list, warning Tony he would be back later.

He had no intention of going back, the kid was jittery enough as was that he'd be picked up eventually, probably in the middle of a street buy of speed or what ever he was so wired on, but Nox enjoyed the look on the kids face when he had told him to be ready, enjoyed the thought that the kid would be paranoid for the rest of his 'trip'.

He heard a thump from within the apartment he was now standing at and rolled his eyes "I'm with the NYPD can you open up?" he yelled.

There was another thump and Nox had his hand on the hilt of his gun, considering whether or not the sounds where suspicious enough for him to justify kicking the door in or not, when a click and the familiar sound of a chain rattling against wood made him stop.

The door opened just a few inches, the chain pulling taught and a narrow face peered out at Nox, frowning curiously. Nox held his ID and badge up to the crack "Scuze me? I'm with the NYPD, I need to ask you some questions about your car?" Nox asked as politely as he could.

The curious face, male or female, Nox couldn't tell, gave a minute nod and Nox lowered the badge as the door closed, there was more noise, the chain being slid back, and the door opened.

"You a Mr Daniel Holker?" Nox asked as he walked in to the apartment.

The narrow face belonged to a man, almost taller than Nox, much skinnier, but strong, Nox could see the sinewy muscles standing out against his arms like thick cords. He had pale blonde hair and dark, very dark brown eyes and the slightly intense expression of some one who was either running on adrenaline or something illegal. Facially, the guy was totally androgynous, but his body, the corded muscles, the sheer looming presence of him, was undeniably male. The guy was what Nox called 'time space age less' a term he'd gotten from his grandmother Nell. In this guys case it was about a decade, meaning to Nox, the guy was aged any where between twenty and some where in his thirties, but Nox couldn't be sure of his exact age.

"No, I'm not him" the guy muttered in a voice so unexpectedly deep it made Nox jump.

"Oh….well who are you then? And is Mr Holker around?" Nox asked.

"I'm Drew, I live here with him" the guy rumbled, seeming uncomfortable with having Nox in the house.

He walked past Nox and into the kitchen, automatically beginning to brew a coffee "Would you like one?" he asked.

"Uh, sure" Nox nodded, thinking the last thing Drew needed was _more_ caffeine "So where is Mr Holker, it's important that I talk to him" he asked.

"He's out I'm afraid, what is it you need to talk to him about?" Drew asked as glasses clinked.

Nox began to move around the apartment, the small den area he stood in, visually taking note of everything as he glanced around.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, there was a couch, some arm chairs arranged around a small television, shelves against the walls stuffed with books, DVD's. Two doors, bedrooms Nox guessed, led off from the den and when he turned and glanced he could see there was a space beyond the kitchen where presumably the bathroom and probably storage space where located. There where no photo's, a few art works, cheap stuff mostly. It was an average apartment.

There was a small desk pushed against one wall, a lit lamp lowered close to the books and pages of notes that lay upon the desks surface.

Judging by the half written sentence and pen laying atop the notepad, Nox realised he must have interrupted rumbly Drew while the guy was studying something, which would seem to make him younger in Nox's approximation.

The notes seemed to be describing some kind of Rite or Ritual, Nox couldn't tell, Drew's hand writing was terrible, scrawling across the page as if a drunken spider had walked through a pool of ink and made its way to the pad.

There was a creak and Nox stepped casually away from the desk, making it look as if he hadn't stopped, had simply glanced at the desk on his way around the room.

"Here" Drew handed him a chipped blue mug, fresh coffee steaming away within.

It smelled unfairly good and Nox took a small sip "Thanks" he smiled politely "So, Mr Holker, I need to talk to him about his car" Nox asked.  
Drew, holding his own mug, frowned, walking casually past Nox and flipping one of the books he'd been taking notes from closed over his messy writing pad "His car? Did something happen to it?" he asked.

"We have reason to believe it may have been used in the commission of an assault against a police officer in the early hours of this morning, we're not making any accusations, we realise the car could have been stolen…that's why I'm here" Nox explained, sipping the coffee again.

"Oh…well he's pretty unreachable when he's at work" Drew told him.

Nox narrowed his eyes, noting that Drew hadn't asked after the injured officer, Danny.

"well, luckily the officer in question got away from his attacker" Nox said very pointedly "but a car that may have belonged to Mr Holker was spotted near the scene so, do _you_ know if the car could have been stolen?" Nox asked.

"He takes it to work…if it had been stolen, he would be here" Drew said simply.

Nox raised an eye brow at the kid, letting his gaze drop casually to the book Drew had made the effort to close.

It was some kind of anthropology text book, fitting with the notes about rituals and something Hammerback had said about some tribes using hallucinogenic herd or plants to aid rituals began to run around Nox's mind.

"Are you sure he's unreachable?" Nox asked "This is a serious matter, if his car wasn't stolen then I need to talk to him directly" he stated.

"he didn't have anything to do with a cop getting hurt" Drew frowned.

"That's probably true, I still need to talk to him" Nox shrugged "Is there a phone number where I can reach him?"

Drew shook his head sullenly.

"What exactly is his job?" Nox asked.

"I don't know" Drew rumbled "I'm just a living here, I pay my rent directly to him in cash"

Nox bit back a growl "Do you know when he gets back from work?" he asked.

"It varies from day to day…and sometimes he wont come back, or he'll only be in long enough to eat or grab a shower then he'll go out again…that's part of why I moved in here, he said I'd mostly have the place to myself" Drew shrugged.

He was lying through his teeth and Nox could see it, the guy wasn't even a good liar, but along with the dishonesty in his eyes there was a solidity, a stubborn firmness that said he'd stick with the lie no matter what. He had contradicted himself saying that Holker wouldn't hurt a cop, as if he knew the guy well enough to bea judge, but then following that up by saying he barely saw Holker. Nox wanted to smack him.

"Well can you do me a favour and write this down, make sure it goes some where he'll see it?" Nox asked.

Drew moved to get a sheet of paper and a pen and Nox swigged the coffee again, savouring the heat of it through the ceramic of the mug.

The humidity that had come with the rain was coming and going in waves, currently it was freezing outside under the torrents of water, and Nox could feel a cold settling on him.

"Okay, uh, write this down 'Mr Holker, Detective Nox Miles with the NYPD stopped by. Vital you talk to him about your car, ASAP, call him at this number any time…'" Nox recited his desk number and cell number, "Make sure you underline the part about him calling" he told Drew.

Drew obediently copied it all down, even using a ruler and different coloured pen to high light the parts Nox asked.

"If I don't hear from him I'm coming back Drew, and I'll want to know why" Nox warned.

Drew glared impotently but walked past Nox to put the note on the fridge as Nox finished up the still piping coffee, hissing quietly as it went down.

"Thanks for your time" he muttered, handing the mug back to Drew as Drew made a point of opening the door to let him leave.

Nox stopped in the door way and dug out the photo fit Danny had given of 'Guide' "Do you know this guy?" He held it straight out, close to Drew's face, making Drew flinch slightly, taking away that second he would have needed to compose himself.

Drew scanned the picture and his eyes flickered ever so slightly, and he hesitated, pausing for just a millisecond before he said 'nope, could be any body' and Nox knew he was lying, that he needed to come back here with a warrant and have words with Holker.

"Thanks again" Nox said, his grin fixed and cruel, his eyes knowing.

Drew gave a bobbing nod of his head and pushed the door closed and Nox restrained a chuckle and headed for the elevator.

He was on the eighth floor of the old building, and the elevators where horribly slow and creaky and seemed to shudder more than was safe, but Nox knew that in cities, things where just like that and wasn't worried. He hit the button for the ground floor and leaned back against the back wall of the elevator, rolling his neck to work out a kink, feeling the scar pull a little tight, as was normal.

It started in his right foot, four floors from ground, a simple heaviness, a numbness where his foot lay against the floor.

Nox frowned, lifting his leg and stamping the foot to get the blood flowing again, but rather than jar a little life back into his foot, the movement only made Nox stagger as the numbness seemed to have spread higher, to his ankle, crawling up his shin.

He was two floors from ground and he began to panic slightly.

When he had been attacked by Ed, the child killing Satanist, there had been a period when Nox had been paralysed, both legs and his right arm, useless. The fear was that Ed had severed a nerve in the attack but it wasn't totally clear, as there was also a possibility that the damage had been done to the muscles in Nox's back, and that in time it would head. Luckily this had been the case but Nox had still suffered almost total paralysis for longer than he liked to think about. He had decided that if he ever was paralysed again, he would ask some one close to help him to die. Nox was a physical person, he couldn't stand the thought of being trapped inside his own body. It scared the living shit out of him and after the attack, it had been nightmares about being paralysed that had plagued him more than anything.

"Come one" Nox muttered, clutching the rail for support and shaking his leg, trying to get the blood flowing.

He actually _felt_ the numbness creep over his knee and begin rising up his thigh as the elevator thumped to a stop on the ground floor and the doors slid open, revealing the deserted lobby.

Nox concentrated and found he could still make his leg move, but he was still dragging it as he shuffled out into the lobby, knowing from when he had entered that he wouldn't get a cell phone signal until he was out side the building.

The numbness was in his hands, not as strong as in his feet but it was there. Thoughts began to race through Nox's head, wondering what was behind the sudden onset of the paralysis. He was praying every prayer he knew that it was some kind of mistake, or a dream or that what ever it was wasn't permanent as he barely managed to push the doors open and stagger out into the rain, feeling the numbness in his chest and beginning in his other leg.

He began to gasp, panicking, but he couldn't tell if it was pure panic or if the paralysis was making it harder for him to breathe but he dug for his cell phone, fumbling with it in fingers that now felt like they simply where not there and dropping it in a puddle.

He cursed but remembered the radio in his car, parked just across the street and he stumbled forward desperately, feeling the numbness go beyond something he could think past. He had been trying to run so when his legs failed completely his momentum still carried him forward into the street, into the path of a car.

It wasn't travelling too fast, because of the rain, but 3500 pounds of metal and glass is still 3500 pounds if metal and glass and Nox could do no more than close his eyes as the car hit him. The driver had slammed on the breaks and Nox rolled up the bonnet, crunching against the windscreen and slid forward as the car stopped, hitting the street, hard.

He lay, gasping, feeling the numbness reach his shoulders and stop and a tiny part of him was grateful for its presence, as his head was screaming in pain and he could only imagine how the rest of his body might feel.

He was aware of people around him, some one yelling for an ambulance, some one else, the driver apologetically telling people "He ran right out in front of me"

"I can't move" Nox gasped, his face pressed painfully against the street.

Some one lay a jacket over him and some one else was leaning close, telling him he was going to be okay.

Nox blinked back tears and repeated "I can't move" but no one heard him over the rain.


	7. Numb

Alright my dears, this will be the last chappie for a WHILE, purely because i have an exam in less than a week and i REALLY need to study for a few days,but there WILL be another chapter, there has to be, read this one and you'll see why...Its all verydramatic and theres a bit of confusion(but its on purpose)but all will be explained, the question is, will everyone be around to hear it, and i dont mean the readers(gasp)

Same warnings/Disclaimers.

Please r+r, i lvoe you guys my reviewers you're all ruddy legends!

I am posting this at 6:30 am, HAVING NOT SLEPT ,just so you know, ), so read away, enjoy, love Pie.xxx

* * *

"So after I left you…this happened?" Pixie, sitting cross legged on the counter in a nearly empty diner, made a gesture with her hands, taking in Danny's beaten, bruised form.

"Yep" Danny nodded.

"I told you to be careful you didn't bang your shins" Pixie shrugged.

"I don't think you did. But I didn't do this trippin over boxes sweet heart, the guy you where supposed to be following did it" Danny told her.

"Guide did this?" Pixe frowned.

"We think it was him…there was no one else at the theatre that was sober enough" Danny explained.

"Well, shit…I knew I was behind him so I ran on ahead, hoping I'd over take him you know? He usually parks his car around the same place, I headed that way and I ended up waiting for him" Pixie actually slapped her palm to her fore head "He was slower cos he was beatin on you!" she stated "Fuck man, I'm sorry, if I woulda known, I would have helped"

"Helped me or him?" Danny asked her.

"You, you ass" Pixie rolled her eyes.

"Good" Danny said "Listen, we're worried that he might try to come after you…he killed some one else this morning" he told her.

"Who?" Pixie sighed.

Danny handed her a Polaroid he had taken of Luke, the latest victim.

"Vincent….as in, Vincent Price…" she said sadly.

"His real name was Luke" Danny told her.

"Why are you worried about me?" Pixie handed the picture back, frowning.

"If Guide is our guy, which we think he is, he was making an awful big deal of tryna get you to go with him last night…this morning….whatever…if he's escalatin to the point where he's killin more people than he normally would, he might try comin after you" Danny told her "I want you to come with me, back to the lab…we can keep you safe there" he told her.

Pixie wrinkled her nose "Can we eat first?" she asked.

Danny leaned forward a little "Scuze me?" he asked her.

"Can we eat? You look like you need good food and this place? Does _good food_" she grinned at him.

Danny turned and glanced at the plain clothes officer who had accompanied him "You wanna eat?" he asked the guy.

"What ever" the officer shrugged.

"Fine, we eat" Danny shook his head incredulously.

Pixie smiled and leaned back slightly "Sam, three cheese burgers with everything and three shakes" she yelled.

There was a muffled response and Pixie slid off the counter, walking over to a booth by the window.

Danny and the officer joined her and before long, a monster of a man with hair down to his waist, held back from his face with hair clips carried their orders out to them.

As the bear/man walked away, Pixie smiled affectionately after him "That's Sam, he's good people" she told Danny and the officer.

They made idle conversation as they ate, until they where interrupted by Danny's cell phone.

He listened to his phone for a minute or so before rising from his seat "We have to go now" he snapped.

"What's wrong?" Pixie asked.

"Nox, the detective on the case, he just got hit by a car, they're saying he's cant move below the neck" Danny said gravely, speaking more to the other officer than to Pixie.

"Shit" the guy muttered, rising to his feet and digging the car keys out of his pocket.

He headed out for the car as Pixie and Danny followed, Pixie telling him they didn't have to pay the bill, but not why.

They climbed into the jeep with the officer and Danny gave him the address Mac had given him, the sight of Nox's accident.

No one spoke as the car travelled through the rain, but in the back seat, Pixie played with her butterfly knife, it's 'snick snick' sound accompanying the thrumming of the windscreen wipers the odd melody serving as a soundtrack for the grim journey.

* * *

Danny was sitting in the back of the ambulance, watching Nox as the paramedic drew the end of a pen up the inside of Nox's foot.

Nox curled his toes and jerked his foot away, the look on his face, the relief mingled with fear, was almost painful to look at.

He was slumped in the raised stretcher, looking exhausted. There was a cut over his eye, leading into a graze that crawled down over his cheek bone and jaw line.

Mac, standing in the door way in the back of the ambulance looked angry again "How's it lookin Ken?" he asked the paramedic.

"He complained of total numbness in his extremities when we arrived but it seems to be gone now" Ken stated "We where reluctant to move him cos of how he was laying but then his hands start twitching…"

"It was there, I couldn't move" Nox said raggedly, his voice hoarse.

"The driver's saying you ran out in front of him" Mac said, not accusingly, simply repeating the facts.

"Why would I be stupid enough to _run_ in front of a car? I was going…numb, from the feet up, I fell" Nox told him, angry not at Mac, which Mac understood, just the misplaced anger that often accompanied fear.

"Wait you where numb _before_ the car hit?" Danny frowned.

Nox nodded slowly.

"How did it start?" Mac asked.

"I was in the elevator and I thought my foot had gone asleep…and it just got worse…by the time I was in the street it was in my arms, my legs where dead weight" Nox was leaning against the wall of the ambulance, shivering despite the thick blanket that had been laid over him.

"Nox…your records say when you got hurt back in Boston…you where paralysed?" Mac asked.

"It was just while I healed up, it was muscle damage" Nox stated "They wouldn't let me back on the street properly after I went back to work, they where scared I'd take a hit, get paralysed for real and sue…another reason I left…but after I got better I never had any reason to feel like I was still…hurt like that…"

"Until today" Ken said "Look man I'm not saying you're making it up but there's no sign of what you're talking about, you seem totally fine…I mean, other than the injuries from the _car_" Ken have a small smirk and Nox matched it "Luckily, you seem to have avoided any serious injury in _that _respect, you didn't lose consciousness but I still want you to get checked out. It was a car that hit you after all"

"It's not gonna start being funny" Pixie, who until then had been sitting beside Danny, stated "Unless, he thinks it is" she nodded toward Nox.

"I would think the car is funny if not for the rest" Nox assured her.

Pixie's curling black hair was once again mostly hidden beneath a black hood, her eyes where surrounded by smudged black make up. She wore, with her hooded t-shirt, red cords and black sneakers and her usual collection of silver jewellery.

"Have you felt any pain in your back, any kind of…pre emptive signs, other numbness?" Ken asked.

"No" Nox muttered.

He was slowly making fists with his hands, opening and closing them compulsively as if he was afraid to stop, afraid of what it could mean if he couldn't do it any more.

"The guy gave me coffee" he said softly as is only just remembering it.

"What?" Mac stepped into the ambulance.

"I went up to an apartment on the eight floor, one of the addresses for the car, the guy there…he gave me a coffee, I drank it…I started feeling weird right after" Nox sat up slightly in the bed and froze, groaning in pain.

"Yeah, you might have been numb all over when the car hit you, but now, you're not, so don't go moving around a whole bunch huh?" Ken scolded.

"Damn it that hurts" Nox gasped.

"Yeah, well, _car_" Ken 'duh'd'

"What address?" Mac asked.

Nox reached for his pocket, biting back groans of pain the whole time, pulling the sheet from it.

"The kid up there, Drew, he was studying anthropology text books before I got there, and he lied to me about Daniel Holker, the dude who owns the place, and he lied about recognising the photo-fit, he's just asking us to look closer at him" Nox told them.

Danny took the sheet "Third address down" Nox told him.

"I'll take a look" Mac told him.

Danny looked over at him "I can do it Mac" he frowned.

"Danny, no offence but right now the two of you need take a step back from this case, in two days…not even that, on the _same_ day, two of my officers have almost been killed working this case, I would like for you both to take have some rest, even if it means you're sitting around the lab, if we're gonna catch this guy, you need to be able to walk and breathe" Mac snapped "Why don't you go to the hospital with Nox for now, have the doctor take a blood sample just in case Nox was dosed, and I'll meet you back at the lab"

"What about me?" Pixie asked.

"You might as well stay with these two for now" Mac gave her a small smile "I realise bringing you in to protect you and then leaving you with the two least physically able officers on the force might seem kind of stupid, but for the time being you'll be safer with these two, I'm gonna be dealing with suspects…" Mac explained.

"No problem" Pixie smiled back at him "I think the fact that Danny personally came to get me and the Boston boy just actually tried to get up out of bed kinda speaks in their favour, considering how beat up they are and all" She shrugged.

Mac nodded "Ken be careful with em? The way this day's going you guys'll get in a car wreck on the way there"

"Thanks, I feel so much safer" Pixie dead panned, making the assembled cops and medics laugh.

* * *

Nox was sitting cross legged on a hospital bed, playing poker with Pixie.

She had located a pack of cards but it was unclear where from. Nox had been x-rayed, cat scanned, poked and prodded until the doctors where sure there was no sign of the paralysis, no serious injury from the accident.

He had broken ribs, a concussion, a cracked bone in his wrist no one had noticed on the scene and dozens of little cuts and bruises that the doctor had assured him would probably be painful for longer than any of the larger injuries.

Danny was sitting beside the bed, Nox's clothes, a blood sample and a small collection of trace evidence in his kit beside him.

They where waiting for a doctor to discharge Nox but the man was taking his time about something so all they could do was wait. It was late afternoon, but Danny felt as if it had been days since his own injuries, the lack of sleep and everything that had happened, stretching the hours out.

"You realises you owe me upward of three grand?" Pixie asked Nox sweetly.

"You realise I could arrest you just for playing this game?" Nox smirked.

"You realise you're playing with grapes in place of chips or money, and you've both eaten like what, six grands worth of your 'money' any way?" Danny asked them.

"We're living the high life" Nox smirked, popping a handful of grapes into his mouth.

"Should we even have food in here?" Danny looked around the small private room.

"Probably not…but we washed em with the sterilised water" Nox told him.

Danny frowned but it turned into a smile as Nox and Pixie simultaneously tossed grapes at him.

"Get outta here!" he yelled good naturedly, "That's wasteful"

"Quit ya bitchin" Pixie muttered "When can we go? I wanna go see your lab and play with chemicals"

"They don't let you play with the chemicals, bastards" Nox chuckled "We can have fun taking your fingerprints though?" he gave her an odd look.

"Not gonna happen buster" she smirked.

"Maybe we'll take em with out you payin attention" Danny raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm always paying attention" Pixie shot back.

The door to the room opened and a typically white coated doctor walked in "Well I'm not _happy_ about this but other than my own opinion...there's no real reason to keep you here…I guess you can go" he shrugged.

"Woo hoo" Nox muttered as Pixie swung her legs off the bed.

Nox was dressed similarly to what Danny had worn earlier, hospital scrubs, his facial wounds had been cleaned and covered with gauzes and his wrist was wrapped in a light weight.

"You two…" Pixie regarded the bruised, beaten cops, "Just…bah" She chuckled.

"What?" Danny frowned, realising Stella had acted similarly earlier.

"You make a habit outta getting this hurt?" she asked.

"Not…not like on purpose" Nox shrugged "It just kinda…happens"

"We're just dedicated is all" Danny muttered "Besides I don't know him all that well so don't go lumping me in with him, he's from Boston" Danny gave Nox a smirk "They're just born trouble makers"

"This from you? Please" Nox shook his head.

"What ever" Danny shook his head, "Get your asses in the car" he held to door to the room open for them so they could walk out, feeling some how slightly more at ease around them than he had of late. There was an oddly sibling like quality to the way Pixie and Nox interacted and while it made Danny sad, reminding him of what he was standing to lose if Louie didn't pull through, he also kid of liked that he was part of the banter and interaction. It was familiar some how, as if Nox and Pixie where some kind of alternate versions of-Danny realised, as if they where odd versions of Flack and Aiden. He frowned as he followed them out of the room, unsure whether he was happy with what he had just realised, but unsure also if he was all that unhappy with it. He didn't want to replace his friends 'fuck no' his mind provided, but having that same kind of banter was…just, nice.

They waited around for Nox to sign some forms, take a prescription of some painkiller or another in a paper bag, holding his gun, wallet and other personal belongings awkwardly.

Pixie offered to take his gun and he raised an eye brow at her "Come on, you'll drop it and shoot my leg off otherwise" she stated.

Nox made a point of tying the drawstring of the hospital pants as tight as he could, clipping his gun to one side of them, lifting his badge and revealing a chain tucked behind it which he clearly intended to lift over his head but hesitated painfully.

"You have to had broken ribs before?" Danny asked "lifting you arms, it hurts, that's why I'm wearin a friggin dress shirt" he stated, motioning to the dark red shirt he wore with dark jeans.

"Yeah, I have, thanks" Nox snapped but it was with a grim smirk "I just…forgot"

"How did you _forget?_" Danny frowned.

"They say most humans forget any serious pain they suffer, or at least, can never ever remember it exactly the way it felt when it happened…supposedly, if a woman could remember _exactly_ how painful childbirth is, the human race would be something like an eighth of the size it is now because no woman would ever have had more than one kid each…well, maybe not right now cos of drugs but…" Pixie shrugged "If we all remembered how painful some stuff can be none of us would ever leave the house"

Danny considered it while Nox nodded in agreement.

Pixie took the badge from him and rose on tip toe to lift it over his head, eventually having to hop to do so.

"Shortie" Nox muttered.

"Bean pole from bean town" she shot back.

"The pair of you are stupid, I'm the best" Danny smirked.

They shot him matching dramatically un amused looks "Why be childish?" Nox asked seriously.

"Why cheapen it?" Pixie frowned.

Danny grinned his Cheshire Cat grin at them both and walked past them to the hospitals main doors.

He was trying to make for a smooth exit but both he and Nox where too beat up to do anything more than pace painfully toward the doors while Pixie, giggling all the way, walked along behind them.

Nox was still fumbling with his belongings and handed Pixie his cell phone, asking her to carry it for him until they where in the car. She pocketed the phone as they silently, painfully walked along.

"You guys doin okay?" she asked them.

"Shut up, you try getting beat on by a serial killer or hit by a car some time" Danny told her.

"Been there, done that, sold the t-shirt for taxi fare" Pixie singsonged as they walked out the doors.

While she and Danny had waited for Nox to be x-rayed and scanned, a uniformed cop sent by Mac had arrived having driven one of the jeeps to the hospital. He had handed off the keys to Danny then left with his partner, who had followed him there in their patrol car.

The jeep was parked across the mostly devoid of humans parking lot, further than seemed sensible considering that the cop knew Danny and Nox where hurt, but Danny also remembered the cop being one of the handful who still gave him shit over the Minhas Subway shooting. He was lucky the guy had even parked the car in the immediate vicinity of the hospital.

"So when we get to the lab I _really_ can't play with the chemicals?" Pixie was asking.

Danny turned to smile at her and when the blow came it took him on the side of the head rather than on the back of his neck. He staggered and was hit again as Pixie shouted and as Nox turned 'Doctor Guide' darted toward him, smashing the handle of the baseball bat into Nox's ribs so hard that Nox couldn't even cry out in pain, he simply dropped to the floor, gasping in agony. It was the same thing Danny's attacker had done, as if he knew exactly where to hit either through being told or watching the way Nox moved.

Pixie ran at him, reaching for her pocket but Guide turned almost inhumanly fast, wrapping one massive hand around her neck.

Danny raised his gun but froze when he saw that Guide had Pixie by the throat, holding her close to his body.

He had the bat in one hand, holding it over Nox's prone form, half raised, ready to swing at his ribs again. He looked strong enough to do some severe damage with it, even with one hand.

"You're all coming with me" Guide hissed, his sandy brown matted to his head by the rain "Put the gun down or I smash his ribs into his lungs"

"Buddy, I have a _gun_" Danny stated the obvious "You even just said ya self"

"And shooting at me means shooting through her" Guide shook Pixie, pissing her off if her face was anything to go by.

"She's a lot smaller than you" Danny pointed out.

"They way I'm holding her neck, you could shoot me through the eyes, my hand spasms and she's dead" Guide shook his head.

"I call bull shit" Nox groaned from the floor, his own hand sliding toward his hip.

Guide did something with his hand that made Pixie gasp, her face crumpling in pain.

She squirmed, one hand reaching for her pocket, the other grabbing instinctively at Guide's hand, trying to pry his fingers lose.

Danny, kneeling awkwardly, his gun held steady regardless, gritted his teeth "Stop it, let her go"

Guide stopped what ever he was doing and Pixie relaxed minutely, starting to shiver.

"Put down your gun or I snap her neck" Guide growled.

Danny kept his eyes on Guide but in his peripheral vision he could see Nox slowly reaching for his gun, getting ready to draw it.

Without blinking, Guide raised the bat and brought it down again, crunching it into Nox's side. As Nox opened his mouth to scream Guide dropped to a crouch, dropping the bat, dragging Pixie with him, clamping one hand over Nox's mouth and nose, simultaneously muffling his scream, holding him down as he tried to writhe in pain and, Danny realised, concealing himself behind the few cars there where in the lot.

Faintly, Danny heard the sound of approaching people, their voices carrying over the rain, but in such a way that Danny wasn't sure how close they where.

"Put it down or I kill her, I kill him, and I kill the cute little family of four that just walked out of the hospital, mommy, daddy and two little kiddies" Guide sneered.

"You're lyin" Danny growled, his mind racing.

"You don't know that….the kids are a boy and a girl, he's about five, she's a toddler, got a cast on her arm, probably her first big fall…I'll kill her right in front of you" Guide smiled cruelly.

"I'll put a bullet in you before you can move" Danny hissed.

"You seriously underestimate me" Guide shook his head.

"Pixie is there a family?" Danny asked the uncomfortably crouched girl.

"I couldn't see, I'm sorry" she told him.

"That's okay kid" Danny assured her.

She moved so fast even Guide didn't realise until the blade from that damned butterfly knife sank into the skin of his arm and she wrenched it downward, twisting it at the same time, tearing open a gouge in his arm with what looked to Danny like scarily natural efficiency.

Guide, some how, managed not to scream, shoving her away as she dragged the knife out, pushing her hard enough that she fell forward but caught herself, the bloody blade still in hand.

As Danny began to move forward Pixie was already rising and turning, the knife ready but Guide snaked a hand out lighting fast and Nox's gun was suddenly gripped in his good hand and pressed against the felled detectives chest, directly over his heart.

"You ever see what a bullet does to an apple?" he asked wildly "It has roughly the same effect on the human heart, only when they shoot the apple it doesn't have quite the same…fatal outcome"

"Pixie?" Danny, who had frozen in his motion forward asked of the girl who was poised in an odd crouch, half turned around.

"He's squeezing the trigger almost all the way" she hissed.

"I will do it" Guide said, and he meant it, he truly meant it.

"This isn't like you Guide" Danny stated "Usually you're more the…what, a quiet dark room some where? You're that guy"

"Usually I don't have cops coming to my home" Guide spat disgustedly as if some how, the idea was offensive to him "All those police outside!"

"Shit, we didn't even know for sure it was your apartment, you just made the case for us, dick head" Danny spat.

Guide faltered ever so slightly but the gun never wavered. Nox's eyes where angry and scared over the top of Guide's now bloody hand. Guide had his thumb raised so Nox could breath, but with his injured ribs restricting how much he could breath in anyway, mixed with the panic he had to be feeling, it was safe to say he wasn't getting a lot of air.

"That family must be long gone Guide, put down your gun, you aint gonna shoot him, you know what'll happen to you if you do" Danny warned "This is New York, you kill a cop…" He trailed off, letting the threat, no, the promise of how Guide would suffer, speak for itself.

"Don't you want to sleep?" Guide asked, his voice suddenly calm, so much so that Danny had to back track in his head to see if he'd just missed the time when he talked the guy down "I could help you sleep…I can see how tired you are, look at you, even now, you're exhausted" Guide said sympathetically.

"Careful" Pixie said warningly.

"I'm exhausted right now cos I'm hurt, its cold and wet, I haven't slept thanks to _you_ and I'm holding a gun up when I got broken ribs, pain takes it outta ya" Danny sneered.

"But what about before…you wheren't lying at the meeting, about how much you don't sleep, I could see it, you…you need me" Guide's voice was soothing.

"I _need_ to get over my fear of Nightol" Danny told him.

"It wouldn't just be sleep…I could make you forget what's keeping you awake, the person who died, all gone, out of your head" Guide smiled.

Something in Danny's head clicked and he had to fight not to squeeze the trigger there and then "I don't want to forget" he said quietly.

"You will….when you see how much easier it is if you just let go" Guide said.

"Drop the gun, do it now" a voice behind Danny said and he felt the cold edge of a knife slide across his neck.

"Drew" Guide smiled, his tone one of relief "Took you long enough"

"I'm here now" Drew said from inches behind Danny.

Danny realised there must have been some kind of tactic to Guide's speeches, a distracting technique.

"I'm not putting my gun down till he puts his down" Danny stated.

"I'll slice your throat man" Drew rumbled.

Danny was starting to realise what Nox had meant the day before when he had spoke of how you cant not react to a knife at your throat. It was taking every ounce of effort he had not to drop the gun and grab for the guys hand. He could feel his ribs throbbing with pain, his arms beginning to whine as they cramped from holding his gun for so long.

The rain was giving him a head ache...or making one he already had worse, he couldn't tell. His eyes ached and felt itchy and dry, his legs where complaining, he could feel the dry hacking build of a cough and probably a bout of flu in his chest, he was exhausted, physically just done, but knew he was not going to sleep tonight no matter what happened in the here and now, he could sense it, some how he was aware his brain was not yet ready to shut down, his finger around the trigger was twitching in a way he was worried would impair his aim, he was scared for Nox, for Pixie and for himself, and there, constantly there, like a backing track to everything, three names where racing through his mind, like they had been for months 'Louie, Flack Aidan' their order irrelevant their simple presence, the meaning behind them enough. Danny actually had to marvel that even as he stood with a knife to his throat, holding his gun on a serial killer who in turn held a gun on another cop while a twenty year old apparent street kid crouched with her own knife ready to strike the serial killer, either unaware of or unable to divert her attention to the guy on Danny, with his body simply one giant nerve cluster of pain, through all of this…Danny was still thinking about Louie, Aidan and Flack. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to forget about everything and just sleep, he wanted to drop the gun, walk away, find a bed and simply drift away to some where were he didn't have to worry for once, just _once_ since his life was derailed by Sonny _fucking_ Sassone and his stupid gang of idiot friends with their delusions of grandeur.

He wanted to lie in a bed, any bed and close his eyes and feel that wash of darkness, soothing darkness that was somehow lost to him, he wanted to dream, because he knew he would dream about Louie being okay, about Aidan being okay but it wouldn't be sad it would be comforting, it would be what he needed to help him, and he knew the more he did it the easier it would be to rest because he knew what was waiting for him when he did. And he knew, standing in that lot, that even if he could do that, just go and find a bed and lay down…he wouldn't sleep. He could _feel_ it, the way you can feel a slight twinge in your head and know, just know it's going to be a full blown migraine within a matter of hours.

He edged his foot forward and nudged Pixie, sensing her tense even further, if that where possible until she was almost humming like a tightly wound guitar string. He had nudged her leg and he felt her flex the muscle as if returning his nudge and he raised his toe against her leg and they moved, Danny jerking his arms back, elbowing Drew's arm from beneath, turning to his own right so he was facing Drew, grabbing the knife hand with one hand and pressing his gun to Drew's forehead, wheeling the guy back around so he faced Guide in time to see that Pixie had faked left then dove for the gun, having to fall across Nox to grab it.

Nox had grabbed Guide's arm as Pixie had moved, managing to twist it away slightly. Pixie jabbed at Guide's injured arm with her knife and it was then that Drew hit Danny with his free hand, a sudden, expert, sharp blow to the ribs that stole the air from Danny's lungs in a wash of pain. The guy moved, snake like again and wrapped a hand around Danny's some how managing to turn Danny so Danny had his back to Drew and his own arms where crossed over his chest, one hand gripping Drew's knife hand, the other being gripped by Drew, gun and all.

Danny figured 'fuck it'

He slammed his head backwards, feeling the crunch as he broke Drew's nose, the movement some how causing Drew to squeeze Danny's wrist in a way that made him automatically drop his gun.

He saw that Pixie had raised her own knife and pressed it to Guide's throat but Guide reached up with his injured arm, still moving as terribly fast as he was capable of and grab a handful of her hair, dragging her to the side, abandoning Nox's gun in favour of grabbing for Pixie's knife.

Nox moved instantly, snatching his own gun as Guide managed to drag Pixie so she was almost prone on her back on the ground, pushing her arm down so she had her own knife at her throat.

Nox pressed the muzzle of the gun to the back of Guide's neck, yelling at him to drop the knife, making as much noise as he could.

Danny recalled being a kid, fighting with Louie, Louie holding him the way Drew now did, restraining him with his own arms, the left crossed under the right, similar to how a straight jacket would.

Although it agonised his beaten body to do so, Danny dropped to a crouch so his crossed arms raised over his head. He turned to his right, turning completely so that he not only faced Drew, but Drew's arms where now crossed. It took less than a second.  
Danny smiled to himself as he remembered the countless times he'd escaped Louie that way, his older brother never being able to figure out how Danny had done it.

Drew wore a look of confusion and frustration as Danny stepped close and head butted him again in the nose, staggering him.

Taking a chance, Danny released Drew's empty hand and in a fluid motion, grabbed his cuffs off his belt, slapping them on Drew in the blink of an eye.

He pulled the knife smoothly from Drew's hand as he swept the big guys legs out from under him, sending him sprawling.

A gun shot made him flinch and he span to see Nox slump to his side, blood on his head, Guide some how holding the gun.

Pixie was motionless on the ground, her face turned away from Danny but he could see blood on her throat and the sight of them both, so still, made Danny pause, the thoughts of them he'd had earlier, of them reminding him so much of Aidan and Flack, of the comforting feeling of the idle chatter and teasing they'd all been throwing around, the thought it was already gone again paralysed Danny where he stood and Guide stepped forward and grabbed him by the arms, dragging Danny close like a bully who's gotten his victim.

Danny couldn't think, couldn't speak as Guide pulled him backwards, bending, still gripping Danny's arm to pick something up. He backed Danny up until Danny felt his back press against what must have been a car, but he still couldn't bring himself to act as Guide placed that hand over his mouth, squeezing it painfully.

It was shock, pure and simple, at seeing two new friends, two people he'd unintentionally connected with so suddenly slain. He was staring into Guide's crazed eyes, knowing his own where blank as he began to feel the effects of the lack of air, his lungs starting to ache. Oddly, his body was expecting the break, the release in pressure so he could snatch a few breaths, as if he where an old pro at being torturously smothered to death but it never came and he felt the cold blade of the knife, which Guide must have picked up, press against his throat.

Guide leaned in close "Usually I have to give them tea…you though…you're just giving up aren't you? You want so badly to just _sleep_" he hissed from inches away.

Some how, that switch in Danny's brain clicked again and he grabbed Guide's hand suddenly, panic tearing through the detached calm that had reigned, unadulterated fear right behind it.

Guide pressed on the knife and Danny began to scream behind Guide's hand as he felt the edge of the blade begin to cut through skin and he could feel the blood on his neck, and he could feel that Guide, he wasn't stopping there, he was pushing harder and he was going to cut Danny's throat, really cut it, not just that slice, and Danny wasn't sure what was going to kill him first, the blood loss or the suffocation because his lungs where screaming for air and he was seeing those black spots again and now the screaming lungs and the black spots and the pain from his throat and from all over his body and the sheer exhaustion of it all where rolling together and he couldn't discern which was which but he was glaring into Guide's eyes as the blackness seemed to win out and Guide faded from his view and he thought he heard a series of muffles pops, an effect of the suffocation some remarkably calm part of his brain pondered and he felt himself go and then there was nothing at all but the darkness.

* * *


	8. dreamer

HA, you all had to wait, not sure what i was going to do, mwahahahah!

Anywhoo. Yes.

Sorry it took so long, had my exam(cake walk, wooo) then had block likea demon, (grrr) then got distracted by some bright shiny jewellry...

But yeah, here it is, thenext installment!

All the usual disclaimers, reviewers, love you ALL!xxxxxREVIEW MORE, WOO!

* * *

He stirred, feeling himself hanging in nothingness, slowly becoming aware of his body, his chest, spreading to his arms, his hands which he flexed and came to realize he could see in a dim but steadily growing light. He came to feel his legs, a strange solidity at his back.

He was sitting, he realised, on a bench, near the river. Brooklyn Bridge dominated the horizon, a flag atop it waving in the wind. It was still raining, grey clouds rolling and boiling over the tops of the buildings, lighting flashing, thunder growling and rumbling almost constantly. But he was not afraid. It was peaceful some how. The rain wasn't touching him. It fell all around him, even directly on him but did not dampen him.

She sat beside him wearing that out fit, the tight wife beater, the jeans, her deep brown hair stirred by a breeze as it fell, tousled, past her shoulders.

"It's beautiful" she told him.

"I was never scared of storms as a kid. I thought they where kinda cool" he said.

"I was scared…I used to hide under my bed…my dad would come in every time and fish me out, and tell me it was just God bowling and taking photographs. I told him every time that I wouldn't be scared any more but he'd come in any way, every storm, because he knew I was lying so he'd be proud of me" She smiled, shaking her head happily at the memory.

"I remember the day you told me that, I got the funniest picture of you in my head, looking like this, fully grown, hiding under a desk at the lab" he smiled sadly "And you smacked me for thinking it"

"Well I'm not scared any more" she told him.

"Aidan…" Danny looked up at her and saw her brown eyes, wide and filled with affection and that edge she'd always had, that tough 'not to be messed with' glint.

"I know" She told him "I know…"

"I want you back…you're my friend, I want that back" And I know how selfish it sounds, but…I miss you" he said plaintively.

She nodded, looking out over the water which was totally, glassily calm despite the weather "It'll pass…give it time and it'll fade and you'll get back to normal"

"I don't want it to fade…I don't want to forget you" he told her.

She turned and looked at him, her eyes meeting his, her smile gentle "You don't have to forget me…you just have to get used to me not being around" she explained "Just imagine it like when I first left, only you cant see me on the weekends and stuff…we just cant meet up"

"I liked seeing you on the weekends" Danny stressed.

"Imagine it like I'm on a vacation then. That's all. I'm on a long vacation in the Bahamas, running around in a bikini, flirting outrageously with some hot island boy" she smirked "That's all you have to do…I'm not _gone_ I'm just…not around right now"

Danny looked down the long path that stretched along the path of the river, off into the distance "And, I'm not alone" She told him "…I'm with my mom. And I'm with your dog Buster, the one who got hit by the car…"

Danny was staring at a figure standing too far from him for Danny to be able to see exactly who it was. But he had an idea.

"Is Louie with you?" He looked back at Aidan.

"I can't tell you that" Aidan shook her head.

"Why not?" Danny frowned.

Aidan took his hand, holding it between hers "Because I'm not really here, this is your dream, I'm only telling you what you already know but can't get to"

Danny frowned "So what do I know?"

"You know you need to start sleepin!" Aidan gave him a smile "you know you need to start eating…you know need to get out with other people more, I know you don't think it, and I do mean I _know_" she smirked "you know I'm okay…where I am now…I'm okay" she said the last softly.

Danny was vaguely aware that he was crying, thin tears rolling down his face. He hadn't even known he could cry in a dream.

"I have to go now" Aidan told him and he looked up at her again.

She raised one hand and cupped the side of his face with it, using her thumb to wipe away the tear there "You also know how much I would rag on you for being such a girl" she said affectionately and Danny chuckled sadly.

"You have to go too" she told him.

"Can we do one more thing before we both leave?" Danny asked her.

She smiled and frowned at the same time, her eyes questioning "Do what?" she asked.

Danny grinned his full blown Cheshire Cat at her and held out his hand.

Still grinning, she took it and he stood, pulling her to her feet. From the very air, a slow tango began to play and Aidan laughed aloud as Danny gave her hand a sharp pull so she had to step forward into his arms. He held her close, one hand low on the base of her spine, their faces inches apart.

"You're not good at this" She smiled as the rain finally began to fall on them.

"If I'm dreamin, I'm an expert" Danny told her.

They moved to the music and Danny was indeed an expert, and as the dream began to fade around them, they danced in the rain.

* * *

Danny stirred, instinctively twitching one of his hands as his body began to wake up, check in.

Pain. Dulled by drugs to an all over ache rather than any acute points of pain but still…pain.

He couldn't help but make a noise, a raspy groan in his throat and _then_ the acute pain came, at his neck, like a line of heat across his throat, spreading and growing warmer, more intense. It was like a chain reaction. The pain at his throat triggered other pains, radiating out, the one acute pain sending out aching waves that triggered others, his chest, his ribs spreading and spreading until he made another noise, this one a choked cry of distress and he felt his hands reaching for something, anything to grip.

He felt a hand in his and closed his hands, squeezing tightly.

"Danny" a voice, a voice he knew said firmly "Danny can you open your eyes for me?"

It was Mac, his voice, his hand "Come on kid, open your eyes"

Danny concentrated, focused his energy. His eyes opened a crack, the light piercing into his skull like a nail. Some one muttered something and the light dimmed.

"Danny?" Mac asked again.

Danny opened his eyes further, his throat feeling painfully dry. "Wha-" he tried to ask, trying to arrange his thoughts into something semi coherent, something he could put into words.

"Danny just hang on a sec, the nurse is gonna put some ice in your mouth" Mac's voice came.

There was a pause, then the feel of soft fingers, a cold sliver of ice. Danny let it melt, gasping slightly, running his tongue over dry, chapped lips.

"What happened?" he managed to rasp, his mind beginning to throw up images of the last things he could recall "Guide?" he asked.

"Danny" Mac's voice sounded again and Danny blinked, his eyes watering, opening his eyes and turning to the sound of his bosses voice.

Mac was leaning over the bed, his face pale and drawn, bags under his eyes showing how he hadn't gotten much sleep of late.

Mac smiled a relieved smile, seeming to slump as if some great tension had left him.

"You're okay" he said, the words not just telling Danny this was so, but telling Mac himself, saying it aloud as if to make it real.

"Mac what's going on?" Danny whispered, becoming aware that he was in a hospital room, that a doctor was standing near bye, a petite nurse making a note on a clipboard beside him.

"You got hurt" Mac stated.

"No shit" Danny coughed.

"Daniel" an unfamiliar voice, the doctor, his accent even in that one word cultured and clipped "I'm Doctor Heeley, I've been treating you" the man said.

Danny cast him a glance then turned back to Mac, like a child seeking confirmation from a parent.

"He saved you Danny…your throat was cut…you wheren't breathing…Heeley brought you back" Mac assured him.

"My _throat_?" Danny widened his eyes, remembering suddenly Guide's manic eyes inches from Danny's own, the feel of the blade at his throat, cutting into him.

He moved to raise a hand to touch his neck but the nurse, barely looking up from her clipboard reached down and stopped his hand pushing it back down to her side.

Danny didn't notice, he had already moved onto the next memory he had.

Nox, Pixie, bloodied on the floor, a gunshot, Nox slumping.

"Oh fuck…Mac, they, he was shot and I think he cut her throat, you have to get them, you have to help them!" he hissed painfully.

Mac sushed him gently "Danny, Danny…they're okay" he said with a small smile "Nox took a hit but the angle was off, bullet grazed his head pretty deep, knocked him out for a while and he says the ringing in his ears is only just stopping but he's fine"

"But I saw him…" Danny frowned.

"You can see him again you don't believe me! And Pixie too, Guide had to deal with Nox so he couldn't cut her up as bad as he meant, he hit pretty hard, knocked her out and managed to cut her neck but she's okay too"

"Are you sure?" Danny asked faintly.

"Uh, yeah!" Mac smirked "They where'nt in great shape, we where worried for both of them for a few days, Nox had some internal bleeding that they had trouble with…but they've pulled through"

"How long have I been..." Danny let the question ask its self.

"A little under a week" Mac told him "Although to be honest, the good doctor could have woken you from a couple days ago, when they took you off the machine…but we decided to let you sleep a little longer" Mac raised an eye brow at him.

Danny felt sleepy again and clutched at Mac's hand "It's pain meds" he heard the doctor say "We're turning them up a little for you, for now, then we're going to take them down a lot, so you'll be a lot more awake and alert"

"Mac" Danny asked, feeling afraid and not knowing why.

"I'll be here Danny, once you feel a little better I'll explain what happened okay, just sleep for now" Mac assured him, his voice soothing, familiar and Danny once again felt himself drift off, but this time he, knew he could come back.

* * *

"So we went up to Daniel Holker's apartment" Mac was leaning back in a chair beside Danny's bed "No one answered our knocks so we ask the neighbour across the hall if this guy, this Drew character, has left in the past hour. Neighbour says Mr Holker doesn't have any tenant he knows about, which means they're living arraingment is something very odd"

Danny was sitting up in bed, his legs crossed in front of him, his back cushioned with a mountain of thick pillows. Stella was sitting on the end of Danny's bed, nursing a mug of coffee the nurses didn't know she had. When she had first arrived a little while ago, she had told Danny she'd been feeding his cats and that the 'fuzzy little buggers' where mean.

She was leaning back on the bed, propping her self up with one arm.

"So we figure we have enough to break in the place and we do, and Drew is gone but we find…well, a mountain of evidence against them. Turns out, Holker, Guide, one and the same, he was a horticulturalist, and he had cross bred some very rare herb species to create the leaves he was using in the teas to sedate the vics. The stuff goes to work very quickly, breaks down in the blood very quickly and is untraceable once it does so" Mac explained.

Nox was in a wheel chair beside Mac's seat, dressed in woolly looking sweats some one had gotten him from home.

He had a thick bandage on the side of his head and his right eye was bruised, slightly puffy, as if he'd been punched. In reality it was the effect of the concussion from the gunshot. He was very lucky he hadn't gone blind. He was hooked up to an IV of painkilling medication. He was white, his skin near transparent, his black hair and eyes only emphasising it. He looked almost vampiric.

"Why?" Nox asked gruffly "What was he hoping to achieve?"

"Drew tells us the Guide seemed to be genuinely looking for a way to make people sleep…having your whole body paralysed doesn't leave you with a lot of options other than to go asleep…" Stella explained "Drew isn't sure when Guide started hurting people but he does know Guide would let him have his way with the girls before Guide killed them…he seemed disgusted when we asked if he molested any of the male vics" she raised an angry eyebrow.

Pixie was curled up in her own wheel chair closer to the head of Danny's bed, so the whole group formed a circle. She was hugging her legs, her chin resting atop her knees. She too was pale and wan looking, her black hair pulled away from her face with a simple head band. She had a bandage on her throat and neat stitches across a cut on her temple, where Guide had hit her.

She was watching the proceedings curiously "How did they get to the hospital?" she asked.

Mac looked over at her "Drew told us when Nox got hit by the car, he went out on the fire escape, managed to get down to an alley in the back without any one noticing because, of course, no one was looking out the back…" he glanced at Nox who shrugged tiredly.

"When I get hit by a car, people notice…I rule" Nox was also a little high on his meds.

Mac gave him a small smirk "Well, Drew waited around to see where the ambulance went, which hospital, then called Guide, explained the situation- he claims dosing you was accidental" Mac told Nox.

"Filthy liar" Nox muttered.

"Drew isn't totally sure what the plan was…he claims Guide just told him none of you could be allowed to get back to the lab…we think he might have been cracking at this point, we where closing in on him, Hammerbacks contacts would have gotten us a big step closer, one of them called us about two minutes after we figured out Holker and Guide where the same, explaining the herbs; he said he'd been in communication for almost two years with two men, working together on an herbal insomnia remedy, asking about older tribal methods…" Mac shrugged, "We ended up at the hospital with you guys because we'd managed to find the gardening nursery Holker was working for and they'd told us…he'd gone _tearing_ out of there after getting a strange phone call" Mac took a deep breath "By the time we got there with some officers…you where all…well Nox and Pixie, you two where down…he was on top of you Danny with the knife" he bit his lips angrily, the memory making him uncomfortable "I think about five different cops shot him"

"That's kinda cool" Danny croaked "I feel loved" he too was feeling the effects of his heavy pain killers.

"So he's dead?" Pixie asked "Like for sure?" she sounded concerned.

"He's about as dead as he's gonna get, when a man is deemed an immediate threat to a civilian or officer, and has a weapon in hand, it's shoot to kill" Stella told her "He's dead, in the morgue right now"

"Could we see him?" Pixie asked "I kinda want to see him…to be sure" she looked away from Stella slightly, not wanting to show her weakness.

"We'll see what we can arrange" Stella told her.

"So that's it?" Danny asked "I mean…that's all there is?"

Mac frowned as if trying to recall any other facts "Other than, you all are staying in here until I say otherwise and Drew is going to prison for a very long time and Danny I want a word with you…yeah" he nodded.

Stella slid off the bed and telling Danny good bye, helping Pixie with her chair. Mac took Nox and returned to Danny's room a few minutes later, sitting down beside his bed.

Danny looked at him.

"How are you feeling?" Mac asked him.

"Like shit actually" Danny shrugged.

"Well, you came awfully close there Danny…" Mac stated "We where…worried…more than we like to be, we…thought you wheren't gonna pull through"

"That doesn't make me feel better Mac" Danny told him.

Mac quirked his head "Well that's why I'm here…how are you going to be over this?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"You haven't been sleeping. You haven't been eating. You're close to a total collapse Danny. I saw how badly it affected you when Louie got hurt, I saw how upset you where over Aidan and I know how hard its been without Flack around all the time…this cant have helped" Mac took a breath "Is this going to make things worse?"

Danny frowned, seriously considering it. He recalled the odd dream he'd had, of dancing with Aidan in the rain, of her telling him, or, him realising, that she was okay.

"I don't know" he admitted "I…I've never slept right, my whole life, not ever…so the last few weeks have been like, an extension of that you know? I cant tell if this is gonna make it worse or better, I honestly don't know…but I kinda think…maybe its not…" he licked his lower lip "I think I might start talking to that department shrink" he gave a one shouldered shrug.

Mac smiled nodding "I'd happy with that"

"But if you tell any one, I'm sorry Mac, I shall have to kill you" Danny raised an eye brow at Danny.

"Oh really?" Mac smirked "But Danny, to catch me you'll have to get up early"

"I just wont go to bed" Danny grinned.  
"Your shrink wont be happy with that" Mac leaned back in his chair.

"Pfft, shrinks are never happy" Danny rolled his eyes dramatically.

Mac chuckled and rose "I'm gonna head out, you'll be okay?" he asked.

"Yes already! Jeez, relax Mac" Danny shook his head, making a big deal out of being frustrated.

It was a glimpse of vintage Danny again, that Mac was glad to see.

* * *

"So are you gonna be all mysterious and disappear now?" Danny was sitting on his bed.

Pixie, once again sat across from him, her usual jewellery and make up back in place, just about covering her bruised face. She was wearing what looked like, but couldn't have been, the same hooded t-shirt, a pleated blue skirt and black tights with high leggedflat back boots.

Danny still wore sweats, he and Nox had yet to be discharged, Nox having suffered from painful migraines that had briefly concerned the doctors.

"You know that diner? I can usually be found round about there some place" Pixie smiled, "But maybe I like being all mysterious like" she gave him a small shrug.

"You confound me" Danny grinned.

"Who actually says _confound?_" Pixie gave him a bemused frown.

Danny smirked "You'll be careful right? No more random little groups in the middle of the night?"

"They're not all stalked by serial killers" Pixie told him.

"Yeah but some are and that's more than enough reason for me to be concerned" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"You don't need to worry about me man, I'm very able to take care of myself" She smirked "So long as I get my knife back some time soon" she gave Danny pointed look.

"It's evidence in the case kid" Danny told her, "Plus it's _really_ illegal" he glanced at her.

She rolled her eyes away from him as if avoiding looking at him and fake coughed into her hand "So I guess I'm outta here then" She slid off the bed, scooping up a back pack that she had lain on a chair "You gonna be okay?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that" Danny stated.

"Yeah, well" she shrugged.

"Yeah I'm gonna be okay" Danny smiled.

"Will you be sleeping?" Pixie asked.

"Will you?" Danny retorted.

She smiled like he'd cracked a joke and shouldered the bag.

"Listen do me a favour….any one comes lookin for me, don't tell em you've seen me okay, I do like that 'mysterious' crap" she smirked.

She leaned forward and gave Danny a little hug and a kiss on the cheek "Oh and" she looked at him from only a few inches away "I know you probably get told this all the time, what with all that's happening…it'll be okay…I'm sure it will" she gave him a small smile "And since you cant really talk to any one around here…if you want to talk to me…I don't know…I guess you can call me?" she drew back from him "What ever, it's up to you" she grinned again and turned on her heel, all but skipping out of the room.

Her offer hadnt been romantic, simply a friend reaching out, and Danny appreciated it.

Danny watched her go, frowning at her disappearing back as she finally passed the window to his room and was gone.

Danny leaned back against his pillows, wondering what to do to fill time as his door opened and a doctor in a white coat frowned in at him "Is that Pixie kid in here? She's supposed to be in her room, she hasn't been discharged yet" he snapped.

"She still hurt?" Danny asked, alarmed.

"Not enough to be terribly concerned but I wanted to keep her around just in case" The doctor sighed "Do you know where I could find her?" he asked, "I'm looking at this address and I'm kinda thinking its bullshit"

Danny smiled "No idea doc" he shrugged "Sorry"

The doctor sighed again and excused himself, leaving Danny alone again.

It was early evening and Danny couldn't really decide what to do to kill time. Since he was on pain killers while he was in the hospital, sleeping was pretty easy, but he was still having trouble settling down. Now though, it was more due to the nightmares he had been having about Guide, about how close the man had come.

He swung his legs out of the bed and slid down painfully, feeling the smooth floor under his feet. He couldn't find any slippers as he unhooked the IV bag and found an IV pole with wheels, to hook the bag to.

He knew where he was going. Louie's room was a floor up and Danny knew he'd have to navigate around half a dozen nurses to get there.

It wasn't too hard to do, the elevators where pretty close to his room, but there was a nurses station just up from the elevators.

"Mr Messer? Where are you going?" One nurse in particular Danny had nicknamed Ratchett looked up from a chart as Danny waited for the doors to open.

He smiled at her as the elevator binged and the doors slid open, stepping forward, pole in hand.

He hit the button and the doors began to close as 'Ratchett' paced towards him, her hard soled shoes clacking on the floor.

The doors closed and the elevator lurched upward quickly.

As they opened on the right floor, Danny stepped out and headed for Louie's room, remembering the things he had promised to tell his brother.

He came to the room and walked in, chewing his lip at the sight of his still, pale brother.

"You know at this rate, you're gonna be skinnier than me by the time you get outta here" he told his brother who was indeed much thinner than he had been when he was checked in "Ma'll go nuts when she sees you, but think of the feasts she'll be cookin, I might put up with her gossipin just to get the food!" he lowered himself into a seat beside his brothers bed "But what did I say I was gonna tell you…Cookie Fustanzi, she's getting married but you know who too? Maria Carlton!" Danny chuckled, imagining how Louie would react to the news "Seems like as soon as she went to college she lost interest in men…means that you where the last guy she was with, means that you turned her man…I always knew I was the better lookin brother but jeez, turning a girl? Her mom wants to kick your ass" he trailed off.

"So if you're wondering why I'm in here, well, I got my ass kicked. And I do mean _kicked_, I took a beating man, not as bad as you, of course, you always gotta win out these situations" Danny laughed to himself "Cant let me have nothing can ya?"

"How's he doin?" Danny jumped and looked around awkwardly to see Flack, in a wheel chair, edging into the room.

"Same…as always, same" Danny told him as Flack wheeled over to him.

"Should you be outta bed?"Danny frowned at his friend.

"Should you?" Danny retorted.

"Touché" Flack bowed his head as he pulled his brakes on, his skin pale but flushed from the exertion.

Danny had been up to see him, and his brothera few times since he was brought to the hospital, so Flack knew how bad Danny had been hurt.

"So what's the happs bro?" Flack asked, raising his hands in some approximation of a gang salute.

"You're such a dork" Danny smiled "It's pathetic"

"What did I tell you about getting beat up? What I tell him Louie?" Flack cast a look at the figure on the bed "You gotta teach him better about getting his ass kicked, foolish jack ass don't know nothing about it, it's terrible, I tell ya" he shook his head.

"Louie don't listen to Flack cos he's stupid" Danny stated, "Hey besides, you cant even get better already and get back to work you lazy bastard so shut up" he raised an eye brow at Flack.

"My pain killers where'nt so totally effective in numbing me? I'd kick your ass for that, lab rat" Flack stated with a smirk.

"You couldn't kick a soccer ball you putz now shut up and find the remote, there's a western on and Louie is like, The Guy for westerns, he knows it all" Danny stated.

"pssh, westerns are easy, you just need a craggy old guy with a gun and some horses, you wanna be The Guy about something, be about mob movies, that's where shit gets complicated, that's where you gotta be keeping track of the different families and all the cousins and crap like that" Flack told him.

Danny found a TV remote and turned the television, finding the channel and moving his chair around so he could lean against his brothers bed to watch it.

"Complicated my_ ass_, you and me both grew up with about four hundred cousins each, the mob got nothing on us" Danny scoffed.

He settled against the bed, Flack manoeuvring his chair so he could see the screen as the film began to start.

"Hey Danny?" Flack asked.

"Yeah?" Danny looked at him.

"Don't go getting hurt again" Flack told him seriously.

He left it for a second before continuing semi jokingly"I don't like havin to worry about your geeky as out there with out me backing you up"

"Alright, if you do me a favour?" Danny asked.

"Yeah?" Flack glanced at him.

"Don't be thinking about my geeky ass at all" Danny smirked at him "That shit makes me uncomfortable, I love ya man but, you just aint my type"

"What is your type?" Flack asked, putting on a mock effeminate accent.

"Well sweetie" Danny put on his own girlish, lisping voice "You'd have to be blonde and a lot buffer, no offence donut boy, and your fashion sense is all wrong and you'd have to" he dropped the voice with a laugh "Be a female"

"You love me, I know it, don't fight man, embrace" Flack shrugged, turning his attention back to the film.

"Shut up ya mouth" Danny laughed.

"You just need to accept who you are Daniel" Flack lisped.

"I'm not above beatin you up" Danny grinned.

"You're so bad, stop that, making me hot" Flack lisped again.

"You have to stop that, now" Danny was laughing out loud "It's not fair, it hurts me to laugh man!"

"You're in pain sweetness? I could rub it better" Flack was doing an admirable job of keeping a straight face but his mouth was quirking where Danny's laughter was getting to him "I could make you feel all kinds of good" he managed, his lips beginning to turn up almost uncontrollably.

"Flack I'll make you sorry I swear to god!" Danny gasped, clutching painfully at his side, his face pink from laughing.

"I get a piece of you'll never be sorry" Flack winked and made a claw with one hand 'growling' at Danny as he winked "I'd write it in my blog, all the boys would be so jealous"

Danny wiped tears of mirth from his cheeks, "You're too into this man, it's not healthy"

Flack finally broke, descending into hysterical giggles that matched Danny's.

Danny sighed happily, getting his breath back as he settled down to watch the film.

Flack lasted about ten minutes. Eyes on the screen, face a perfectly blank mask he took a breath.

In that same, lisping voice he stated "You'd look adorable as a cowboy Danny"

"Flack!"

* * *

And there ya have it, basically a resolution...if you like it let me know, i have an idea for a sequal/continuance dealing more with Nox's past, still Danny centric but just taking the character a bit further...let me know y'all, its been a joy.xxxxxxxxxxx


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